Hard-to-count communities in Bakersfield have low response rates with less than one month to respond to 2020 Census

September 4, 2020 /

The latest Census data shows a number of areas in metro Bakersfield have response rates of less than 50 percent. 

Old Town Kern, Lake View, Cottonwood, Casa Loma and Fairfax are just a few of the blocks that have low response rates, according to a map created by US Census Bureau liaison, Jesus Garcia. 

With less than one month to respond to the 2020 Census, organizations locally and across the state are making their final push to get an accurate count by the Sept. 30 deadline. 

The California Complete Count Committee partnered with the California Native Vote Project for a press briefing to give updates on the census count and the plans for the upcoming weeks. 

During the briefing, it was reported that 67.2 percent of California had responded already. In Kern County 61.4 percent have responded, according to the census website. 

A big part of the plans from the census office and their partners will be reaching out to hard-to-count communities. These are communities that for any number of reasons have very low response rates. 

To address the low response rates, numerators are going to homes to collect responses. 

If nobody is home the numerator will leave a code to answer online. If you do not have the code you can still go online and click the “I don’t have a code” option. It is encouraged for everyone to respond to the 2020 Census as soon as possible. 

Households can respond now online at 2020census.gov or 2020census.gov/es (Spanish website), by phone at 844-330-2020 or the Spanish line at 844-468-2020, or by completing and mailing back the paper questionnaire they received. Households can respond online or by phone in one of 13 languages and find assistance in many more. Those that respond will not need to be visited to obtain their census response.

JaNell Gore

Ja'Nell Gore is a student at Cal State Bakersfield. In addition to writing for Kern Sol News she is a poet who loves any chance she has to perform and be with her community.