MichiganRadio

Detroit Launches Census Effort OCTOBER 27, 2009 (Michigan Radio) - The city of Detroit is launching its effort to make sure everyone is counted in the 2010 census.

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing announced the creating of the "Complete Count Committee" on Tuesday. The group will involve non-profit, business, and other community groups to make sure people complete and return their census questionnaires.

Vincent Kountz, the Census Bureau's Partnership Coordinator for the Detroit Region, says one of the biggest obstacles to getting an accurate count in Detroit and other historically hard-to-count cities is that many people are suspicious of the Census.

"One of the things that we find is that people do not trust the government. They think we're gonna share that information with other agencies outside of the Census Bureau," Kountz says. "So that's one of the things that we have to convince people of is that we don't share that information. That's our biggest challenge."

A Pew Charitable Trusts report issued earlier this month says Detroit undercounted its population by 1.5% in the 2000 Census, and will have even fewer resources for the 2010 effort.

The Census count determines the distribution of over $400 billion in Federal funds, and representation in the U-S House of Representatives.
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