Foreclosures Posing a Challenge for Census

The Census of 2010 is presented with a challenge that is unprecedented. People have to be counted as per their place of residence but the economy has been uprooting them by the thousands on a gigantic scale. Census count is done once in a decade.

The Census Bureau admits that foreclosures have posed a problem as regards counting people but there is not much they can do except to encourage the citizens to complete filling in of the forms and to follow up those persons who fail to do so. The head of the household is expected to give details of all who are residing there as on 1st April 2010. This is irrespective of how they have come here or whether they are permanent or temporary residents.

However the critics, desire that the Census official to make renew efforts targeting the localities that have been worst hit by the foreclosure crisis. Rep. Steve Driehaus (Democrat/Cincinnati) is one of the leading proponents of this idea. The officials of the Census Bureau could be facing harsh questions about their managing the foreclosure issue. A special hearing of the congress is scheduled in Cincinnati on 8th March.

Driehaus is a member of House Information Policy and of the Census and National Archives sub-committee. He has been instrumental in bringing the hearing to Cincinnati to find out how the bureau is planning to ensure this difficult counting of the population that includes college students, minorities, disabled persons and innumerable families facing foreclosure. The problem is that many of the families of foreclosed houses remain untraceable – they sort of vanish.

David Scharfenberger of Working in Neighborhoods is an activist in this group. He said, “People who receive a foreclosure notice, it’s not something that they like to brag about. If they’re not supposed to be there, they might not want to fill anything out.” The group is a non-profit body that endeavours to stop people from being evicted from their homes.

He has been asked to testify at the hearings. He said, “They get a foreclosure notice and they just leave their home. There’s no tracking that’s been done about that group of people, where they go. My concern with regard to the census is, will those people fall through the cracks, and I suspect there are a few people who will.”

The officials of the Census Bureau admitted that they did not have the specially crafted procedure rules to overcome this difficulty but they are optimistic that a solution would soon be found.

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