Census skips seniors

A four-page list contains more than 200 names of Winter Park seniors who have yet to receive their 2010 census forms, and it's still growing.

That has many at the Mayflower Retirement Community worried that they won't be counted, as the April 1 deadline to submit the form has come and gone.

"About half of the residents here just didn't get one sent to them yet," Mayflower resident Janet Donahue, 83, said. "And that kind of leaves us up the creek."

Betty Nelson, Mayflower community services director, said the percentage of residents that are still awaiting their forms in the mail could be even higher than half, and the Mayflower is doing all it can to get those residents accounted for.

The residents on the list will get a visit from a district representative, who will come bearing forms, as well as help them to fill it out.

Orange County Complete Count Community Liaison Tiana Davis said she is not sure why this happened to the Mayflower Retirement Community, but believes it could have been because they got termed as "group quarters," a place that houses a specific group of people, which therefore gets counted as a group.

"This should not have happened because they live in apartments with individual addresses," she said. "But I am glad to hear it's getting worked out."

The impact of just one person on federal funding can be detrimental. The loss in funding for government services for just one uncounted person in Orange County is anywhere between $850 and $1,400, according to Census.gov.

Many forms unaccounted for

Many Seminole and Orange county residents who have received their census forms still have not returned the little blue questionnaire.

Although April 1 was the deadline for the 2010 Census forms, they can still be mailed in throughout the month of April. In May, census workers will begin circulating to homes that haven't returned the forms.

The 2000 Census response rate was 44 percent for Orange County and 54 percent for Seminole County. The national average was 52 percent.

"It's important that everyone be counted, because for everyone that is counted, we receive our fair share of dollars that can help support resources that we currently have," Davis said. "Everyone can benefit from it."

This small form is more than just a statistical count of the number of people living in a household; it can affect the number of seats the state occupies in the U.S. House of Representatives, as well as determines how much of the $400 billion in federal funding will be spent on infrastructure and services, such as schools, hospitals, senior centers and other public works projects.

"Anything that we are eligible for that benefits the community and quality of life that we recognize here is important," Seminole County principal planner Tony Mathews said. "We are trying to make the community aware of the census and the importance of the census and at the end of the day increase that return rate."

Community outreach

Both counties are trying to demonstrate the importance of the forms by reaching out to residents, especially in minority areas that have otherwise had poor response rates by spreading the word through the community at churches or other community events.

"We have done a lot of community outreach, whatever community event was going on within our county … we attended whether it was minority-geared or not," Davis said.

Davis said Orange County has gone door-to-door passing out fliers in minority areas, reminding residents of the importance of the forms.

"Our goal this year is to have 70 percent of the population within the entire Orange County, that includes all the municipalities' participation in the mail-back response rate," Davis said. "So that when the census takers do come out maybe our percentage will be higher."