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Report regarding a resolution authorizing the acceptance of $22,500 in grant funding from the County of San Mateo to support the City of South San Francisco’s Census 2020 outreach and canvassing in hard-to-reach neighborhoods and approving Budget Amendment 21.009. (Kathy Blandón Escobar, Census 2020 Program Manager)
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RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
It is recommended that the City Council adopt a resolution authorizing the acceptance of $22,500 in grant funding from the County of San Mateo to support the City of South San Francisco’s Census 2020 outreach and canvassing to ensure a fair, accurate, and complete count of the South San Francisco population and approving Budget Amendment 21.009.
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BACKGROUND/DISCUSSION
The deadline to fill out the U.S. Census questionnaire has been moved up by four weeks to September 30, 2020. Due to COVID-19, on April 13, 2020, The Census Bureau delayed its field operations until July 31, 2020 and extended the self-response deadline to October 31. This would have given the Census Bureau until April 30, 2021 to process the data for congressional reapportionment. However, on August 3, 2020, the U.S. Census Bureau announced the self-response deadline has been shortened to September 30, 2020, maintaining the Bureau’s statutory deadline of December 31, 2020 for congressional apportionment and maintaining the March 31, 2021 deadline for redistricting of legislative and congressional seats. This recent scaling back of the submittal deadline greatly interferes with the goal of getting a fair and accurate census count. In addition, the Census Bureau has not been able to hire, train and deploy canvassers and enumerators needed to reach out to and assist Hard to Reach/Least Likely to Respond residents. In response, San Mateo County is providing a $22,500 grant to enable canvassing to community members who have not yet submitted a census questionnaire, with a special focus on the low response census tracts of 6022 and 6023.
Funding will be used to deploy bilingual Census Outreach Teams in easily-recognizable vests in these two areas, offering on-the-spot submittal via iPads. The team will also distribute 2 free masks per family as they walk the neighborhoods and reach out to residents. A successful census relies on everyone’s participation and will help benefit the community by providing the basis for reapportioning congressional seats, redistricting, and distributing federal funds annually to support states, counties, and communities’ vital programs - housing, education, transportation, employment, health care and public policy.
FISCAL IMPACT
Grant funds will be used to amend the Library Department’s current Fiscal Year (FY) 2020-2021 Operating Budget via Budget Amendment 21.009. Receipt of these funds does not commit the City to ongoing funding.
RELATIONSHIP TO STRATEGIC PLAN
Acceptance of this grant will contribute to the City’s Strategic Plan under Priority #6: Community Connections, by developing an outreach plan for Census 2020.
CONCLUSION
Receipt of these funds will enable the City to engage Hard to Reach/Least Likely to Respond populations through the Census 2020 project. It is recommended that the City Council accept $22,500 in grant funding to support the City of South San Francisco’s Census 2020 outreach and education campaign and approve Budget Amendment 21.009.