Services In The City Rely On Poll’s Accuracy For Federal Funding

Some 100,000 people who were living in San Francisco on April 1, 2000, were not counted by that year’s Census workers, city officials have claimed.

They don’t just care for accuracy’s sake: Those uncounted people translate to less money for The City to provide services. Some federal and state programs dole out funding to local governments on a per-capita basis, so an undercount means less cash — but not fewer people to serve. Board of Supervisors President David Chiu has estimated the local government lost about $300 million of much-needed funds thanks to the alleged undercount.

In 2000, the Census counted 776,733 people. This year, the aim is to count at least 810,000 — preferably more, said Adrienne Pon, executive director of the city-funded group SF 2010 Census.

Federal Census Bureau officials have never formally acknowledged that they undercounted San Francisco, but they did evaluate each county in California and give them “Hard to Count” scores. The scores across all counties varied from 14 through 92, with the higher score being the harder to count. Some factors that can make an area hard to count are the number of transients, diversity in communities and poor access.

San Francisco scored a 63, as did Alameda County in the East Bay. San Mateo County was given a 44. In Northern California, rural Alpine County ranked hardest to count, at 92. Ranked easiest to count was Amador County, at 14.

Some changes are being made to the questionnaire in an attempt to ensure the most accurate count ever, bureau spokeswoman Sandy Louey said. The organization has eliminated the much lengthier questionnaires that were sent out to one out of every six households 10 years ago. They have also launched an advertising campaign in 28 languages — rather than 17 in 2000 — and will provide language assistance guides in 59 languages, rather than 49 in 2000.

Local census workers are also working differently this year than in 2000. They began outreach much earlier than last year, and specifically targeted neighborhoods and communities that have often been left out of the count in years past. Starting last year, The City hired people who live in Single Room Occupancy hotels, housing projects and other areas that have been tough to reach. Those people have begun talking to people in those communities, explaining the Census and encouraging them to participate, Pon said.