The county’s route to a complete count in the 2020 census hit a road bump with COVID-19.
The outbreak and subsequent orders by Gov. Charlie Baker to stay home and avoid other people came just as the census ramped up for most Americans two weeks ago. “Of all of our worst nightmares of things that could have gone wrong with the census, we did not anticipate this set of actions,” said Al Fontenot of the U.S. Census Bureau, which has suspended its field operations until at least April 15.
Popular gathering places like libraries were supposed to be key to the plan. In Franklin County, Tyler Memorial Library in Charlement and Arms Library in Shelburne Falls won a $3,000 grant to support residents in completing the census. The plan involved opening both libraries for additional hours as well as providing outreach at local senior centers, food pantries, church coffee hours and town halls — all closed now. Throughout the county and the North Quabbin area, librarians and their informed, friendly staff stood ready to assist patrons in completing their census form online using their libraries’ public computers — not now.
Nursing home residents are off-limits to census-takers. Thomas Aquinas College has sent its students home, thus depriving the town of Northfield of a head count of the campus’s student population. With field operations suspended by the Census Bureau, the county’s homeless population will remain uncounted.
All this at a time when the stakes couldn’t be higher. Data collected in the census will be relevant for a decade and will include not only the redistricting of congressional districts, but federal and state funding for things like special education, SNAP benefits, substance abuse prevention and treatment grants, and water and waste disposal systems for rural communities.
“It’s a quick snapshot with long-lasting effects, determining how much federal funding for basic services gets channeled to the home level over the next 10 years,” explained Arms Library Director Laurie Wheeler.
Currently, the census is expected to show the area’s population has decreased by 0.5 percent since 2011. “We hope to prove (the anticipated decrease in population) wrong,” Natalie Blais, D-Sunderland, said earlier this year. “I can’t underscore enough the importance that each person is counted. Each person counted represents more money and resources in Massachusetts.”
The so-called “Self-Response Rate” of people who have filled out their census form is tracked day-by-day so that census-takers know where to direct their efforts. As of March 29, 40.1 percent of all Franklin County households had responded to the census. This compares with all of Massachusetts at 36.8 percent.
Breaking it down by Franklin County towns: Ashfield, 31.7 percent; Charlemont, 21.5 percent; Greenfield, 39.8 percent; Hawley, 29.4 percent; Northfield, 42.1 percent; Bernardston, 41.9 percent; Buckland, 41.8 percent; Colrain, 31.4 percent; Conway, 36.5 percent; Deerfield, 47.9 percent; Hawley, 29.4 percent; Heath, 8.4 percent; Leyden, 44.9 percent; Gill, 39.2 percent; Erving, 46.8 percent; Montague, 47.7 percent; Monroe, 10.3 percent; Rowe, 30.5 percent; Shelburne, 38.3 percent; Sunderland, 45.2 percent; Warwick, 37.6 percent.
In the North Quabbin area, as of March 29, Athol had a response rate of 38.7 percent; Orange, 40.6 percent; New Salem, 47.9 percent; Wendell, 27.9 percent; Royalston, 28.3 percent; Winchendon, 36.2 percent; Phillipston, 34.7 percent.
You can track your community’s self-response rate at bit.ly/2Uv9dUA.
Residents are understandably leery of opening the door to a census taker. You can avoid a visit come late spring or summer by responding either online, by phone or by mail. Experts say the best way to reach people in hard-to-count groups or locations is through trusted community leaders and friends. Your encouragement to family and friends will help ensure the highest possible count — and that’s good for all of us.