Census Resource Center To Open At Queens Borough Hall

KEW GARDENS, QUEENS — A resource center dedicated to helping Queens residents fill out the 2020 Census and apply for census-related jobs will open Thursday in Queens Borough Hall.

The center will offer electronic devices for residents to fill out the nine-question census form online, which is available starting March 12, as well as hard copies of census information in more than a dozen languages.

Trained volunteers from the Queens Complete Count Committee, a group of 100-plus community leaders and groups working on census-related outreach, will be on hand to answer questions.

The center will be open every Tuesday and Thursday until July 31. No appointments are necessary.

“It’s all hands on deck for the 2020 Census,” Acting Queens Borough President Sharon Lee said in a statement. “We must ensure every single Queens resident — of every age and regardless of documentation status — is counted. When we are not counted, we are rendered invisible and irrelevant for our fair share of federal representation and funding."

The resource center is the latest effort in a year-long campaign by the borough president's office to ensure the 2020 Census has a fair and accurate count of Queens residents.

Only 62 percent of New York City residents responded to the 2010 Census, compared to the national rate of 76 percent, according to city officials. Various Queens neighborhoods also saw substantial undercounts in 2010.

The census, which happens every 10 years, determines the number of seats each state has in the U.S. House of Representatives and how to spend hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funding for schools, roads and bridges, public transportation, hospitals and other services.