Baltimore Mayor Announces New Census Tracking Dashboard; Says City Has A 44% Response Rate
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Baltimore city has released a new dashboard to track 2020 Census engagement live. The live dashboard will update the total census response rate.
"I encourage all residents to use this tool to track their community census response and to urge their friends, neighbors, and family to complete the census before June 1," Mayor Jack Young said.
Currently, Baltimore is at a 44.6% per household response -- which is higher than many of our comparable cities like St. Louis, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Detroit, New York and Cleveland. The mayor says the goal is to get 73% of households to respond.
"So once again while you're staying home staying safe, please take 10 minutes to complete the census it is vitally important," Young added.
City officials said they have shifted outreach methods, including holding virtual events to help inform city residents about completing the census.
Del. Stephanie Smith said to target how to count populations, they are phone banking since they cannot reach out in traditional ways.
"Another thing that we've done is a lot of these communities, they're already the go-to community organizations for relief, for food for help, etc. So now we're just finding a way to dovetail, any type of relief they're providing to their neighbors, with some messages about the census," Smith said.
They are also looking to put stickers on food boxes to inform people on how they can participate. They are working with religious institutions handing out food and giving them laptops so people can complete the census online.
For the latest information on coronavirus go to the Maryland Health Department's website or call 211. You can find all of WJZ's coverage on coronavirus in Maryland here.