California tenants – and everyone else for that matter – take note. Starting March 15, census forms will be mailed to all households. Forms should be completed and sent back in by April 1, National Census Day. Census workers will follow up with in person visits to households that do not complete the forms by mail. If you need help with the form, call the Census Bureau’s call center (1-800-923-8282).

Who cares about the census? We all should. The national census has huge implications. Hundreds of billions of dollars are allocated each year based on census data. The California Senate’s website notes that the state loses an estimated $1,300 per year for 10 years when a person is not counted.

The Senate website also notes that California has a disproportionate share of the nation’s “hardest to count” populations: “California has 22 percent of the nation's "hardest to count" population, but only 12 percent of the nation's total population.” Add to that growing distrust of the government, particularly among immigrant groups that have been targeted by outrageous post-9/11 policies, and collecting data from low-income Californians will be as difficult as ever. True the personal data collected is confidential, but many will nonetheless fear returning these forms.

Renters typically have lower return rates on census forms than homeowners and are undercounted in the census. As the Census Bureau explains, “research has shown that misinformation about the census and language isolation are two primary reasons non-homeowners have been ‘undercounted.’”

Nonetheless, the Census Bureau expects to register a rise in renters in the 2010 Census: “Renters are an important and growing segment of our population. It is projected that the 2010 Census will show a rise in the number of renters in this country, due to an increase in home foreclosures and natural disasters that have displaced people from their homes.”

The census asks ten questions. Among them is Question number 3 asking whether the home is owned or rented, a question that has been part of the census since 1890. The results are used in part to administer housing programs and allocate resources (such as section 8 vouchers) that are crucial to low-income tenants across California.

Check out the Census Bureau’s toolkit developed specifically for encouraging census participation among renters, and encourage everyone you know to return completed census forms by National Census Day – April 1, 2010.

Dean Preston is the Executive Director of Tenants Together, California’s Statewide Organization for Renters’ Rights. For more information about Tenants Together, go to www.tenantstogether.org.