(WXYZ) — Due to a Supreme Court ruling this week, overturning a lower court's decision, Oct. 15 is now the last day to complete a U.S. Census form.
Executive Director for the City of Detroit's 2020 Census Campaign, Victoria Kovari, is urging people who have not yet completed their form to do so immediately. Given the shortened time frame, she suggests going directly to my2020census.gov.
“When they get to the part where it says put in your ID. People don’t have their IDs anymore because they got them in a letter back in March. So just click the part that says "I don’t have an ID, and you'll be asked a couple of questions to verify your address and then you'll get to the regular census questions," Kovari told Action News.
For a single person with no kids, the process takes a few minutes. For families, just a few minutes more.
Kovari is urging everyone, but Detroiters especially, given that it's generally a harder area to count due to high populations of renters, to complete their form by midnight.
“There’s no second chance after today," she said.
When the pandemic hit, the U.S. Census Bureau extended the response period for the Census to Oct. 31. The Trump administration moved for that deadline to be put back to Sept. 30, however many national groups pushed back, suing in federal court.
Recently the Supreme Court granted the Trump administration's request to end the Census count, overturning a federal court order that had allowed it to remain through the end of the month.
“We had twenty places that we were going to be doing sign-ups for the Census until Oct. 31. It really hurt us in terms of being able to capture those last-minute sign-ups," Kovari said.
So, the city is moving up one of its events aimed at getting people to complete their forms. Thursday, Oct. 15 from 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the Second Ebenezer Church Baptist Church off of I-75 and McNichols, anyone who shows up to complete their Census form is eligible for a $25 Visa gift card.
Kovari noted that Census data translates into millions in federal dollars; money that goes to neighborhoods, hospitals, schools, Medicaid programs, and can also determine Congressional representation.
Census data from the previous Census equals around $3,000 per Michigander each year, and around $5,000 per each Detroiter.
When people aren't counted, Census workers must estimate.
“The more estimations there are, the less accurate the census is. And if we don’t count on folks, that money is going to go to other places across the country with a higher response," Kovari said.
In 2010, she said around 30,000 people were impacted by wrong estimations.
In addition to completing the Census form online, if you don't have access to a computer you can also do it at one of the city's Census kiosks.
Locations for the kiosks are below:
District 1 Apollo Market, 20250 W. Seven Mile Road, 48219 Digimax, 18461 W. McNichols Road, 48219
District 2 Savon Foods, 18000 Livernois, 48221 Imperial Fresh Market, 14424 Schaefer Hwy., 48227 Northwest Activities Center, 18100 Meyers, 48235 (2 kiosks)
District 3 The Matrix Employment Center/ Osborn, 13560 E. McNichols Road, 48205Imperial Foods, 5800 Caniff, 48212Imperial Supermarket, 1940 E. Eight Mile Road, 48234Pick and Save Supermarket, 7404 E. Seven Mile Road, 48234
District 4 Gratiot Rigley Drugs, 12278 Gratiot Avenue, 48205 Samaritan Center, 5555 Conner, 48213 Delpointe Food Center, 16700 Harper, 48224
District 5 Parkway Food Store, 11250 E. Jefferson Avenue, 48214; Coleman A. Young Municipal Center (Lobby), 2 Woodward Avenue, 48226; Lafayette Foods, 1565 E. Lafayette, 48207; Detroit Water and Sewerage Customer Care Center, 735 Randolph St., 48226; Wayne County Treasurer, 400 Monroe, 482263; 6th District Court, 421 Madison St., 48226
District 6 University Foods, 1131 W. Warren Avenue, 48201; Family Food Superstore, 8665 Rosa Parks Blvd., 48206; CHASS-Community Health and Social Service Center, 5635 Fort Street, 48209; Detroit Community Health Connection, 6550 W. Warren Avenue, 48210; Prince Valley Market, 5391 Michigan Avenue, 48210; DDOT Rosa Parks Transit Center, 360 Michigan Avenue, 48226; Wayne State University - Student Center, 5221 Gullen Mall, 48202
District 7 Detroit Association of Black Organizations, 12048 Grand River Avenue, 48204; Islamic Center, 14350 Tireman Avenue, 48228; Saturn Super Foods, 20221 Joy Road, 48228; Grand Price Market, 12955 Grand River Avenue, 48227
