Census Complicated By 'Mass Exodus' Across LA, Abrupt Count Halt

SANTA MONICA, CA — Thursday is the final day for the 2020 Census, following a U.S. Supreme Court decision this week to end the count. But on the ground, there is growing concern that people in Santa Monica and across Los Angeles County could lose out on valuable funding for education, streets, roads and homeless services.

A census worker who declined to be named for fear of retaliation told Patch that this has been the most difficult year for the census yet.

"It's been unlike any other year of the census," the worker told Patch. "We’ve been told to lie, break our oath, we’ve been told to rush through cases, get whatever information we can get instead of getting full accurate information."

It has not been easy to count everyone.

"They basically fired almost everybody," the worker said, describing what happened over the summer. "The rest of us were mostly sitting at home waiting for them to send us nonsense cases."

At one high-rise on Wilshire Boulevard, more than 200 people were uncounted at one point, putting millions of dollars on the line for the city.

"This had been going on for months. Where they were sending people out there to knock on doors but the security guards at the building wouldn’t let us in."

Census workers are federal employees who have a legal right to be there, the worker added.

Santa Monica and Malibu were named two areas that had a low turnout. It's something that local officials have spoken up about, citing low turnout via online and mail for the census and urging residents to be counted.

The Inglewood Census Bureau office is in charge of counting Santa Monica, Malibu, Culver City, Hawthorne and other Westside neighborhoods. But the census worker who spoke to Patch said this office asked census workers to lie about the cases they were working on so they could close the cases.

"The Inglewood office was going to close the census population count for the building," the worker said. "People were being pressured to close the cases out."

Things are different this year, though.

"They have this rule this year, that if you tried and you get no response, then it doesn’t exist anymore," they said.

However, people have been displaced in the pandemic-induced recession.

"Los Angeles experienced a mass exodus, and this has been probably been the most difficult year because of that," the worker said. "Maybe the Civil War was just as hard."

Census workers also have faced unique challenges that they haven't met in the past.

"So many people are anti-government, they’re worried about immigration, they’re worried about the government spying on them," the worker said.

One man in Inglewood believed, incorrectly, that he would have to house homeless people in his empty bedrooms, the worker said.

"People were concerned about opening the door because of COVID," the worker said. "I had to do a lot of interviews behind a closed door where I am behind a door and we’re shouting."

The census started on April 1, but there was some confusion about who should be counted.

"A lot of people left on April 1," the worker said.

Some people might have left on March 31, or stuck around for a month later after lockdown before deciding to return home.

Some units are empty. A lot of Chinese, Russian, Europeans who own homes here are gone, the worker said. One couple happened to be home in Canada when it happened.

"They’re stuck in Canada — they can’t get back," the worker said.

It's surreal, the worker indicated.

"It’s been enlightening in a lot of ways," they said. "The overall experience of being out in the world this much after being in quarantine and lockdown has been very eye-opening to see where people are at emotionally, where they’re at intellectually and their relationship with the government."

"It’s also really interesting to see how many people who own homes that are 100 percent unoccupied and now that there is no travel happening, there are just apartments and mansions sitting empty now," the worker said.

Another important aspect of the census is how it counts homeless people — and there could be a problem because homeless people often don't get counted even though you don't need an address to fill out the census.

"Here’s something I didn’t realize," the worker said. "The census also does a homeless count. That happens over the course of three days."

"Because they hired less people than ever before for this year’s census, and had a shorter period of time than ever before, they were completely understaffed for the homeless staff," the worker said. "There’s going to be a really huge lack of people who are counted who are either living in a car, RV, or staying in a tent or shelter."

Census workers are feeling pressured to complete and continue counting up until the last moment. There is a lot at stake.

"Trump is threatening that he’s going to try and undercount California under the conditions that so many people are illegally here and he doesn’t think we should have representation or Electoral College votes," the worker said.

"They’re closing out these different cases after one or two unsuccessful times," the worker said. "Sometimes it takes 20 or 30 times of knocking on doors."

"It’s so blatantly obvious to me that they are targeting large Democratic cities like Los Angeles," the worker said. "They want to undercount the homeless, minorities and migrant population."

A September report detailed the dire costs of a census undercount in California's 33rd Congressional District. The report, prepared by the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform, details that if there is just a 1 percent undercount in the 2020 census, the residents of the 33rd District could lose $420,000 in federal funding for schools that have a high proportion of low-income students, or the equivalent of all the textbooks that 1,678 students would need in a school year.

The 2020 census has only 12 questions and does not ask about citizenship.

Data collected by the census is used to determine how much funding the district receives for critical services such as education, medical care, foster care, roads, public transit, and job programs. Census data also helps local governments enhance public safety and prepare for emergencies.

"A more complete response to the census means more opportunities for a brighter future for our community," Lieu said. "An inaccurate count could impact class sizes, public safety, health care programs and many other critical services in CA-33. As this newly released report outlines, it is essential that every single resident ensures they are counted. It's a quick and simple way to do your civic duty to help our neighbors get the resources and representation they deserve. I encourage everyone to fill out the census and make sure their family, friends and neighbors do too."

Learn more about the census and get counted by visiting https://2020census.gov/; calling 844-330-2020. You can still submit your census responses by mail Thursday, the final day.

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