With roughly 40% of New Yorkers still uncounted, this has drawn widespread criticism. 

“This is census suppression pure and simple,” state Senator Zellnor Myrie says. 

Myrie led a Census march for racial justice over the weekend and says Black and Hispanic populations are often undercounted by over 10%.

This once-in-a-decade population count determines more than just federal funding and congressional seats. 

“What this would mean for us is less money for our schools, less money for our hospitals, less money for job programs, less money for affordable housing, all of the things that we need the most we would get the least of from the federal government,” Myrie said. “So I cannot stress enough how important it is for us to fight this act of census suppression.”

Census efforts have already been delayed due to the pandemic, and it wasn’t until last month did the Census Bureau send out workers to knock on non-responsive household doors. 

“You just need to head out and basically interview them for the Census, which can be done on the smartphone,” Neil Hyland, a Census worker for upstate New York said. “And if they’re not there they provided me with several different pieces of literature to leave either at the door for notice of visits or other information sheets to give to them.”

However, more people than ever might be hesitant to open their doors. 

According to the Pew Research Center, around 4 in 10 adults who have not responded to the Census would not be willing to answer their door to a Census worker due to coronavirus fears. 

Hyland says he feels protected, but many of the workers he is around are retirees. 

“They provided me with a complementary face mask and handheld Purell. It’s worth its weight in gold I would imagine,” Hyland joked. “As long as I’m being properly socially distanced and sanitary, people shouldn’t have to worry about me and I hopefully shouldn’t have to worry about them.”

The Census Bureau will now wrap up its counting efforts on September 30, instead of October 31.