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As of April 19, 2020, over 75 million households, nationwide, have said something to the United States Census. In Chicago, The U.S. Census tried to stay strong overall even though Chicago’s state rate is high, and achieving overall does not mean every part is staying afloat. Some of Chicago’s bigger and smaller neighborhoods are still falling behind severely. For example Little Village their rate is below 20 percent. Census coordinator for the nonprofit Enlace in Chicago Katiria Diaz once stated that “In Illinois, a lot of money has been invested for the census…” She further adds that every time she turns around, she hears/sees “something about the census.”
The cause of Little Village’s low rate is mostly because people have lost jobs and now have to try and home school their younger children all because of the coronavirus pandemic. Diaz also believes it is because of these hardships that caused, “communication and trust barriers that prevent people from prioritizing the census.” There are also Neighborhoods that have rates over 20 percent like North Lawndale, Englewood, and New City. A Chicago census policy coordinator had said that looking back from 2010 to now, black communities are doing “better now than they did at the end of 2010’s census.”
Written by Charles Lott
Edited by Sheena Robertson
Resources:
Chicago Sun-Times: Census response rates in city, state are strong overall, but some communities lag
Image Courtesy of Thomas Hawk’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License