Commentary: I was a teenage census taker

By Karen Baena

Lane Tech High School graduate

On May 7, I found myself standing outside a four-story building while a man screamed and yelled out his window. According to him, I was harassing him. He threatened to call the cops. I was doing my job. Plus it was only my second visit, but he would not listen. He called 911.

My job as an enumerator for Operation NRFU (Nonresponse Followup) for the U.S. Census was to track down the people who didn’t return the questionnaires that were first mailed on March 1. For every housing unit that did not return a properly filled out envelope, an enumerator questionnaire (EQ) was created.

I spent May, June and some of July tracking down household members. The tedious job of hunting down residents contributed to the census’ ultimate goal: counting the population.

The people who chose not to mail back their questionnaires were hunted down by enumerators such as myself, and not everyone was eager to be counted.

Census workers had different experiences; some were worse than others.

“My worst experience was visiting a house where the two men who owned the house were rude and yelled at me to get off their property,” said Andrea Basilio, an 18-year-old Chicago student at University of Illinois at Chicago.

Chicago residents Rico Rodriguez and Eduardo Macz shared a similar sentiment.

“A lady opened the door and her four dogs jumped all over me. It made me feel uncomfortable and awkward,” said Rodriguez. “She needs to put them on a leash.”

Macz’s experiences were a little more physical.

“[A] lady didn’t want to give me her information and then I was taking note of that and she got rude asking what I was writing and why I was asking and then she slammed the door,” said Macz, a 19-year-old Chicago student.

The negativity many enumerators faced came despite the government’s efforts to encourage the population’s participation.

News coverage and posters advertised the U.S Census and the necessity of filling it out, along with information on its purpose and benefits. However, the hostility that enumerators met proved that not everyone agreed with the advertisement.

“It could be [that they are hostile] because they are immigrants or are scared to release personal information or maybe they don’t have time,” Basilio said.

However, despite whatever fear they might have Basilio also feels it is important to “get counted” so that money can be received to “help run the community programs.”

In the government’s continued efforts to count everyone, it began the second part to NRFU.

On July 12, approximately a week after Operation NRFU ended, I attended a second training session with the Census Bureau. My job title remained enumerator; however, the purpose of Operation NRFU-VDC (Vacant Delete Check) was to contact the same people who were previously approached by the census takers. This time, enumerators were sent out to verify the “Vacants” and “Deletes.” That means that claims of vacancy or non-existing units have to be verified.

Once again, I set out to find respondents. For Operation NRFU-VDC I encountered more hostility than before.

A lady went on a rant the first time I rang her doorbell. She claimed that she had already completed the form that was mailed, completed one with an enumerator and that she had even called the regional office. Then she started blowing her cigarette smoke in my face.

"They're gonna be upset. Just [by] one time that enumerators knock on their door they get upset," said Zarco. "If you're bothering them a second time, they’re not going to want to let you in or give you the information."

The census is about allocating our communities resources smartly. Yet, for a while I was getting paid to go and "re-ask" people if their basement had been occupied on April 1, 2010.

In 1790, the U.S conducted its first census. Every 10 years since then the government has set out to count people, for various reasons.

The information that is collected by the U.S. Census Bureau is for statistical purposes. For example, the number of electoral votes that each state is allowed during elections is based on population. Funds and resources are allocated based on each region’s population. The more accurate the head count, the more government assistance an area can receive.

Nancy Rivera, a 10-year resident of Lake View and who worked as an enumerator for the census during the spring and summer, has this perspective: “It’s important that the government [has this information for funding for jobs and schools]. This is a democracy and you need to know how many people are in a certain area so that they can have enough representation.”

The census-collected respondent information included both addresses and phone numbers. However, they still created NRFU-VDC which required that many times the exact same people be contacted again as respondents.

As Zarco had predicted people were not happy that they were being “bothered a second time.”

The look that I received when a Logan Square resident explained that her basement was a laundry room--"NOT A HOUSING UNIT!"--made me want to go home and save many Logan Square residents and myself some frustrating conversations (for NRFU- VDC I was assigned homes in Logan Square).

Not everyone was rude. Some people actually responded to the notes I left stuck to their doors. One man was nice enough to call and say that he was a neighbor to the apartment where I had left the note and that he just wanted to inform me that no one had lived there.

As the days passed, I started to feel a little creepy as I rode my bike through Logan Square. The neighbors gave me wary glances every time they saw me tying my bike up to a post by their house. Yet I continued. I knocked on front doors, back doors, windows, the right-side neighbors, the left-side neighbors and even the neighbors across the street.

Finally when I was down to two EQs I met my crew leader at Starbucks. I decided that was it. If I had visited those two houses one more time, I would have not only felt like a complete stalker, but they probably would have run out of nice ways to avoid me.

Not every moment of working as an enumerator was bad. Other enumerators have also enjoyed their job and feel that the purpose and small moments make up for the hostility sometimes found while in the field.

“Some people are really friendly which makes the job a lot easier,” said Basilio. “My best experience was visiting this old lady named Rosario. She welcomed me in her house and was very kind and caring, offering me food and water.”

“I once talked to an old lady for half an hour,” said Rodriguez. “She never has any visitors; [we talked] about life, dogs and food.”

Enumerators are sent out to count, but they end up entering people lives, if for only for a few minutes. Whether the experiences are negative or positive, at the end of the day workers can say they not only helped the community, but have interesting stories to tell as well.