[StBernard] Fewer than half of the census questionnaires sent out in Orleans and St. Bernard were returned

[Westley Annis]

Fewer than half of the census questionnaires sent out in Orleans and St.
Bernard were returned

Published: Thursday, October 21, 2010, 9:20 PM

 Michelle Krupa, The Times-Picayune 

While nearly three-quarters of households in Jefferson and St. Tammany
parishes filled out and mailed back their 2010 census questionnaires,
response rates in Orleans and St. Bernard parishes fell short of 50 percent,
U.S. Census Bureau data released Thursday shows.

View full sizePat Sullivan, The Associated Press archive

Census water bottles were offered to visitors to a community resource fair
in February in Galveston, Texas.

The low rate is likely a function of the huge number of vacant homes in
Katrina's flood zone.

Response rates in other New Orleans area parishes hovered around the
statewide rate of 65 percent. Nationally, 74 percent of households mailed
back their forms, the agency reported.

According to the Census Bureau, some 47 million households across the
country did not mail back a form by late April, prompting officials to
dispatch census takers to visit the addresses and attempt to figure out how
many people live there.

Neither that process, nor "Be Counted" forms submitted by households that
didn't receive a questionnaire, were among the figures released Thursday.
Those numbers will be included in the final head count, which officials are
expected to announce by mid-2011.

The low response rates in places hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina did not
surprise Allison Plyer of the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center.

Owing to the bureau's unprecedented effort this year to hand-deliver forms
to all inhabitable addresses in the New Orleans metropolitan area, many
homes that clearly were vacant -- but where someone theoretically could live
-- likely ended up getting questionnaires.

"In the hurricane-damaged areas, where the Census went door-to-door and
hand-delivered forms to addresses that are clearly blighted, one would
expect a lower response rate," she said. "We know many of those houses are
blighted and that no one is living there."

Plyer called response rates of 72 percent in Jefferson and St. Tammany
parishes a positive sign. "It would be worrisome if those areas were not on
par with the nation," she said.

The slightly lower response rates seen in other suburban parishes likely
owes to the fact that poor households are less likely to return forms by
mail, she said.

Michelle Krupa can be reached at mkrupa at timespicayune.com or 504.826.3312.