Credit to Local Census Organizers
By Albert B. Kelly
As we head into the month of December and close out 2020, there are so many things that can be said about this hard and difficult year. So much of what we did and how we did it was changed, altered, amended or outright cancelled because of the Covid-19 pandemic. That was certainly true for the census, which is why I want to extend my appreciation to Cumberland County Senior Planner Sharon Mollick and her colleagues, including Shared Services Coordinator Omarey Williams.
The 2020 Decennial Census is in the books and the final self-response rate was 66.5% which means we were some 0.3% below what our self-response rate was for the 2010 census. Considering the fact that the census unfolded in the midst of a global pandemic and in an atmosphere tinged with fear for certain groups and categories of people, 66.5% is a damned good response rate.
Bridgeton’s self-response rate is not what I had hoped in that it was 89% of what the self-response rate was in 2010. I am disappointed, but I am not surprised in light of the rhetoric that came out of Washington D.C regarding the whole citizenship mess. If I were in the uncertain situation that some of my constituents were in, I’d like to think that I would have been among those willing to be counted, yet I can understand why some wanted no parts of the census.
The hard part for us is that we still have to provide all of the services for these individuals and families whether it involves brick and mortar things like infrastructure and recreation facilities or services such as educating children, feeding seniors, or transporting the sick to hospitals. Having an undercount means we might not access the full range of resources we need in order to provide the services we must so that this labor force, hated by some and needed by others, is able to work the fields and farms in our county.
But that’s a discussion for another day. For the record, Vineland and Millville had self-response rates in 2020 at 97% of what it was in 2010 and the rural areas (i.e. the townships) collectively came in 108%. The County team accomplished this in spite of the fact that they had numerous events cancelled in the months after the pandemic hit. Through it all, in light of social distancing and masks and capacity limits, they were still able to host and participate in upwards of 89 census events.
This determination to engage throughout the county at these events meant that some 400 households comprising 1,600 individuals were included in the count that otherwise would not have been reflected in the final numbers. I was surprised to learn that the 1,600 people that the County team helped complete their forms equates to roughly $3,090,896 per year in funding that would have otherwise been missed in the count.
In addition to the scheduled events, the County team also launched the Census Mobile Unit, better known as the “Census Bus”. Somewhat like the Partridge Family, the Census Bus rolled through the Cumberland County serving as focal point and anchor for various add-on and pop-up events through the summer including food banks and other faith-based happenings among various houses of worship.
While these numbers are solid and serve as fair representation of both our numbers in Cumberland County as well as what was achieved by those tasked with organizing the count, this mound of information and data will be sifted and refined over the coming months and years. My point is that the figures will be refined and we will likely not have a hard set of final figures until well into 2022 or 2023.
These numbers, as emphasized over the past year and half, will help determine how much federal and state funding is allocated to various communities. What emerges from the census will go a long way to determining who gets what resources including Highway Planning and DOT Construction funds, Wildlife Restoration funds, Historic Preservation Fund Grants-in-Aid, Underground Storage Tank program funding, Small Business Development resources, and money for Supportive Housing for the Elderly to name but a few.
Regardless of the final numbers, much credit goes to Sharon Mollick, Omarey Williams, Matt Pisarski, and the County team supporting their collective efforts to ensure that we got the best count possible in an extraordinarily difficult year.