Chilkat Valley News - Serving Haines and Klukwan, Alaska since 1966

After a month without much movement, Haines’ census response rate is now 27%, more than twice what it was a week ago. However, this is still 35% below the national average.

The census, mandated by the U.S. Constitution, is a population count of everyone living in the United States that is used to determine congressional representation, redistricting and how federal and state funds are distributed. It’s conducted once every 10 years.

This year’s census is particularly critical because the result could determine distribution of future federal COVID-19 recovery funds.

“Filling out the census is the easiest thing we can do to ensure more funding is directed toward Southeast Alaska,” said Meilani Schijvens, director of Rain Coast Data, a Southeast-based consulting firm that specializes in economic analysis and public outreach.

At the beginning of May, Haines had a 12.5% self-response rate, roughly 20% below the state average and 40% below the national average. It was thought the low response rate was driven, in part, by suspension of census field operations due to COVID-19.

In most communities, residents are mailed invitations to respond to the census. Since Haines residents have mailing addresses distinct from their physical addresses, census workers rely on a process called “Update Leave” to distribute invitations to individual households. During Update Leave, workers deposit paper questionnaires at front doors, giving residents the option of responding via mail, online or over the phone. This year, Update Leave was delayed until the U.S. Census Bureau resumed field operations on May 6.

Census Bureau media specialist Jeanette Durán Pacheco said Update Leave is now 94% complete in Haines.

Although Haines’ self-response rate has increased significantly in the past week, it remains well below the community’s 45% response rate in 2010. And that year, Haines’ response rate was still low—10% below the state average and 20% below the national average.

“We know this area has some challenges in low self-response,” Pacheco said. “Potential barriers to participation in the 2020 Census include people being unfamiliar with how the census benefits them and their communities, privacy and confidential concerns, and lack of trust in the government.”

But in general, it should be easier for people to respond this year since, for the first time, response is possible online, Pacheco said.

As a whole, Alaska’s response rate is low. Larger communities tend to have higher response rates than smaller ones. Haines is doing better than a number of places including Skagway, which has a 14% response rate.

Schijvens said what can really make a difference in a smaller community’s response rate is one or two local advocates who take it upon themselves to make sure their community fills out the census. She said this recently occurred in Saxman, a small city in the Ketchikan Gateway Borough. After a local woman began pushing her friends and neighbors to fill out the census, the community saw an 8% jump in its self-response rate in a single week.

Those who fail to fill out the census on their own are still likely to be counted through the door-to-door follow up process scheduled to begin Aug. 11.

“(The low self-response rate) means our enumerators are going to have a lot more work to do, so that’s unfortunate,” Haines Economic Development Corporation (HEDC) executive director Margaret Friedenauer said.

The Haines Borough Assembly passed a resolution last fall to have HEDC coordinate local census outreach. Friedenauer said the organization had planned a number of events including bringing laptops to the senior center and hosting pizza parties to encourage participation. The organization also planned to distribute materials including mailers and tote bags reminding people to fill out the census. Friedenauer said plans were put on hold indefinitely after the onset of the pandemic and the loss of borough funding for HEDC.

A lower response rate means census workers will need to make more in-person visits to residences during a time when individuals have been encouraged to limit the number of people they come into contact with .The Census Bureau has been advocating for a high self-response rate to avoid this outcome.

All census workers will be trained in social-distancing procedures and will be issued personal protective equipment (PPE) to help mitigate the risk, according to a U.S. Census Bureau press release.