Aurora will holds its final census day on Saturday.
City officials and volunteers will hit the streets in some of the city’s harder-to-count areas with hopes of getting as many people counted as possible before the Sept. 30 deadline.
“This is one of the last nice weeks with the weather, so it’s a beautiful opportunity for us to get out,” said Mayor Richard Irvin this week at a City Council meeting. The community census day will take place from 10 a.m. to noon.
Aurora has a 73.9% self-response rate, which is a measurable increase since a similar community outreach event was held last month where dozens of volunteers fanned out into hard-to-count neighborhoods and visited more than 7,000 households, city officials said.
Clayton Muhammad, the city’s chief information officer, said the self-response rate is about 2% ahead of 10 years ago, and that with the work of official census enumerators who have been combing neighborhoods also, city officials believe they have more than 90% of the city counted.
But officials have pointed out in the past that each person that goes uncounted costs the city about $1,800 in lost gas, sales and income tax from the state, as well as in federal funding. That adds up to $18,000 a person when figured over the next 10 years.
Also, the census determines what kind of representation cities and the state itself will have in Congress.
“It’s all hands on deck for the final countdown,” said Irvin. “We see the direct impact of being in our neighborhoods and plan to visit more than 10,000 houses in our lowest response areas on Saturday.”
Although city workers and many of the aldermen will be taking part in the event Saturday, the city is seeking additional volunteers to distribute door hangers and remind residents to complete the 2020 Census.
Volunteers can register at aurora-il.org/service and select their preferred area.
