COVINGTON, Ky. - Stuck at home?
Fill out your mandatory U.S. Census form. It’s quick, it’s simple, it’s the law, it’s confidential, it can be done online for the first time ever, and - most importantly - millions of dollars in federal help are riding on your action in the City of Covington alone.
Some 13 percent of the City’s budget comes from direct federal funding that’s allocated based on population counts, Neighborhood Services Director Ken Smith said. It’s been estimated that the City could stand to lose out on almost $22 million over the next 10 years if the 2020 Census is no more successful than the 2010 Census in making sure every Covington resident is counted.
“Don’t let the forms you’ve been getting in the mail sit on the counter,” Smith said. “Take a few minutes to fill out the Census survey, and encourage everybody in your friend and family group to do so as well.”
Covington’s challenge is that it has high levels of historically hard-to-count populations: renters, students, senior citizens, children under 5, transients, immigrants, low-income families and racial and ethnic minorities.
But those populations stand to benefit substantially from services funded by federal money, which in Covington’s budget is allocated to everything from emergency home repairs to down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers to first-year rent help for small businesses to park renovation and road repair and neighborhood-specific police patrols.
Health-care agencies in Covington also receive federal funds allocated based on population.
The official U.S. Census Count started Wednesday, with forms and reminders mailed to households in the last few weeks. Forms can be filled out via paper, phone (1-844-330-2020), and online at 2020census.gov. Two options present themselves, for people who have a geographic-specific access code and those who don't.
As of March 31, some 33.8 percent of households in Covington had responded to the confidential Census survey.
And note that if you don’t fill out the form, the Census Bureau will have to send a Census taker to your home to encourage you to do so.