Homewood lags behind neighboring cities in census participation

With people stuck at home this month with not much else to do except completing their census survey, councilwoman Barry Smith said she and other people on the census committee were thinking the COVID-19 pandemic could raise census participation rates.

Yet, as of today — nationally recognized as Census Day — Homewood continues to lag behind neighboring cities.

April 1 data shows that Homewood is at a 40.3% response rate, which is a few percentage points above the statewide participation rate. Yet this rate is at least four percentage points below other Birmingham suburbs. On April 1, participation rates were 45.3% for Hoover, 48.1% for Vestavia, 48.3% for Mountain Brook, 51% for Chelsea and 50.5% for Trussville.

Homewood had a 74% response rate to the 2010 Census, which was also the national participation rate for that census. Cities that neighbor Homewood, though, saw higher rates in 2010 as well: 78% for Hoover, 84% for Mountain Brook and 81% for Vestavia Hills.

When The Homewood Star spoke with Smith and Jennifer Andress in January, the councilwomen said lack of census participation could cost the city money. They both spoke about their various ideas to bring Homewood’s census participation rates up.

They looked at 2010 data to find the neighborhoods in Homewood with low participation, and they planned on bringing an air-conditioned, WiFi-enabled Homewood Fire & Rescue trailer to those neighborhoods so citizens could hop on and complete their census survey. They also planned census drives at the Homewood Public Library and asked bilingual volunteers to translate the survey when needed. They planned to make a census-themed float at the We Love Homewood Day Parade, too.

The COVID-19 pandemic has put a hold on these efforts, though. The city’s library is closed, and it would be nearly impossible to bring Homewood citizens into a small, enclosed trailer without further spreading the virus. It’s up in the air whether We Love Homewood Day will still happen in May, either.

The Homewood community faces particular challenges. There are several undocumented immigrants in the community, said Carlos Alemán. He’s the deputy director of ¡HICA!, which is a community development and advocacy organization for Latino families and immigrants in Alabama. 

City leaders were able to look at 2010 census data to discover that Hispanic communities are hesitant to complete their census surveys. For example, in Census Tract 51.02, a 0.7-square-mile area off of Green Springs Highway with a high rate of Hispanics, 36.2% of the tract self-responded in 2010. For this year’s census, only 17.2% of the area responded to the census by April 1 — less than half of the rate of the rest of the city. The ¡HICA! office is located near this tract.

For the past year, Alemán has made efforts to inform the local Latino community that the census survey will not ask questions regarding citizenship status, he said. 

“This was a real point of concern for our community,” he said. “Since that’s not going to be on there, we’ve been trying to inform folks that the census is safe, it’s easy, it’s important, and it’s something they need to do.”

The census was already going to be challenging for this community, but limiting face-to-face interactions is making census participation even more challenging, he said. This year’s census is digital-first — citizens can also participate by mail or over the phone, but as of April 1, 99% of Homewood’s census responses were made online. 

“Not everyone has access to the internet, so that’s going to be a real concern for our community,” he said. “These are huge barriers that we have to try to overcome.”

Smith and Andress have moved their efforts online, encouraging census participation on their social media accounts and having Homewood residents tag them in posts once they complete their surveys. The library’s Facebook page also has census-related posts. “10 minutes of your time = 10 years of funding for your city!” one Facebook post from the library reads.

There is some good news — Homewood’s response rate is higher than the state and national rates, which were 37.3% and 36.2%, respectively, on April 1.

Alabama residents began receiving notices about the census in mid-March. The notice has instructions on how to complete the survey, which takes approximately 10 minutes to complete. Visit my2020census.gov to complete your census survey.

Those who don’t complete the survey by May will be visited at their residence by a U.S. Census Bureau employee.

To track real-time census participation results, go to 2020census.gov/en/response-rates.html.