Covid-19 Pandemic — Blog

With a poverty rate of 24.9 percent, Philadelphia was the nation’s poorest big city before the Covid-19 pandemic rocked our communities and economy. Philadelphia has almost 34,000 confirmed cases and has lost 1,767 of its citizens (unsurprisingly, Black Philadelphians have been hit the hardest by the pandemic). Thousands of students without access to computers or the internet to finish the school year virtually. A hospitality industry that employed 10 percent of Philadelphia's workforce lost 43,000 jobs from March to April, a 56 percent decline (and is still missing roughly 30,000 jobs from its March levels). As painful as these and other pandemic impacts have been, there will be more pain to come.

We haven’t yet reached the point in the recession where the City of Philadelphia – $750 million pandemic-induced hole – will be forced to choose from a menu of lousy austerity measures to balance its budget. SEPTA hasn’t yet implemented drastic service reductions even though the agency projects its severe ridership decline to result in a $300 million loss across FY20 and FY21. The PHL COVID-19 Fund, a partnership between the Philadelphia Foundation, United Way, and the City, raised and distributed more than $17 million to more than 500 regional nonprofits. However, more than one in four Philadelphia nonprofits expect funding disruptions will limit their cash flow and cause staff layoffs or furloughs over the next 6-12 months. That is not good news for a sector where many organizations already had a weak financial position.

Overshadowing these complicated and inter-related challenges at the local level is uncertainty about the continued federal funding for vital recovery benefits such as unemployment insurance, SNAP, and direct stimulus payments. The Urban Institute recently projected that these federal resources would keep more than 10 million people out of poverty through the end of the year, leading to a national poverty rate of 9.2 percent instead of 12.4 percent. The Brookings Institution recently outlined why a weak economic foundation, long-standing racial and spatial inequities, and fragile education, workforce, and small business support systems pose severe challenges for equitable recoveries in legacy cities like Philadelphia.

There isn’t much that the average Philadelphian can do to combat these systemic challenges. We can't keep our cloudy future from turning into a storm. Still, there is something each of us can do so our most vulnerable residents can find an umbrella when the rain comes: complete the 2020 Census.

That’s right, the Census. No act of civic engagement would contribute more to our pandemic recovery than a complete and accurate count of Philadelphia’s population. Every year, almost $1 trillion in federal funding for healthcare, education, infrastructure, economic development, and more is allocated based on Census data. The Census determines the amount of funding supporting disenfranchised and vulnerable Philadelphians through programs like SNAP, Pell Grants, the National School Lunch Program, and Section 8 Housing Vouchers. Philadelphia receives more than $3 billion annually in funding for these and other vital programs. And for every Philadelphian that isn’t counted, the city could lose out on $21,000 over the next decade.

Over the last year, I supported the National Association of Counties’ development of issue briefs that provide practical strategies to help local officials achieve a complete and accurate count. Making It Count, published last fall, focused on how local government officials could organize their Complete Count Committees and establish partnerships with trusted community partners. Achieving a Complete Count During a Pandemic, published earlier this month, identifies common themes from county leaders and subject matter experts on how the pandemic has impacted local Census efforts and how local leaders have adjusted their strategies to respond to obstacles that may limit an accurate and complete count.

In doing this work, I gained a new perspective on the complexity of executing a Census that had a myriad of obstacles that were likely to limit the count well before the Covid-19 pandemic. The nation's first online Census launched when almost 20 million Americans lack access to broadband internet and increased concerns about cybersecurity after the debate concerning Russian interference in the 2016 election. Even though the Supreme Court blocked the Trump administration's controversial proposal to add a question asking each respondent to identify their citizenship status, it stoked fears about participating throughout immigrant communities across the country. The Census Bureau already planned to have fewer offices and staff than it did in 2010 and was well behind schedule for hiring and training before the winter holidays. Once the Covid-19 pandemic emerged, it shut down Census operations just as fieldwork was starting. It also made the enumeration process - when Census takers knock on the doors of households that have not responded - frightening and potentially dangerous.

The truth is that we were never going to reach a complete count before the pandemic. The pandemic made reaching hard to count populations – particularly children under five, low-income and lower-educated communities, English language learners and undocumented immigrants, and racial minorities – even more difficult. When the Census Bureau announced last month that data collection would end on September 30 instead of its previously revised October 31 deadline, it all but ensured that we would end up with a severe undercount that will specifically disadvantage Black and Brown communities.

If you’ve made it this far, you’re probably wondering how Philadelphia is doing? In a few words: not good. As of August 28, 53.3 percent of Philadelphia households completed the Census, a response rate that trails the national response rate of 64.7 percent, the Pennsylvania response rate of 67.6 percent, and Philadelphia’s final 2010 response rate of 62.4 percent. Unsurprisingly, most big cities across the country have response rates that fall short of the national average and 2010 performance. Unfortunately, Philadelphia is fairing worse than many of our peers compared to a group of the 30 largest cities nationwide.

Cities like Seattle, Denver, Austin, and San Francisco - with populations that are Whiter, more educated, and more affluent than Philadelphia – have higher response rates than Philadelphia. However, Philadelphia currently trails cities with more similar demographics like Chicago, New York, Houston, and Baltimore.

Philadelphia’s comparatively low use of internet-response stands out as a particular challenge. Slightly more than one in four Philadelphia households that have completed the Census have used the phone or mail. Only Baltimore has a higher proportion of its respondents that have used the phone or mail options.

Five maps illustrate the challenges we face better than any additional analysis can. The first map shows racial segregation by Census tract in Philadelphia, the second map shows poverty rates by zip code, and the third map shows household internet access by Census tract. The fourth map shows the response rates by Census tract in Philadelphia. Areas with higher response rates are shaded in blue, and those with lower response rates are shaded in tan/brown. The fifth map also shows response rates by Census tract but identifies the communities in purple with response rates in the bottom 20 percent nationally.

Source: CUNY Mapping Service at the Center for Urban Research

See a pattern? The overlap between the communities where most Black and Brown Philadelphian's live – many in neighborhoods with high levels of poverty and low levels of internet access – and communities with low levels of Census participation is undeniable. These deep-rooted structural inequities were hard to overcome before the Covid-19 pandemic limited local outreach efforts dependent on events and in-person contact to build awareness.

Philly Counts, the group leading our local Census efforts, has done practically everything they can to get folks counted. From March to June, phone banking volunteers made more than 100,000 calls and had over 14,000 conversations. They distributed door hangers, yard signs, and all types of swag. They held virtual events Like a #MakeBlackCount conversation in partnership with the Urban League or a virtual happy hour with We The People. They partnered with elected officials to lead caravans that traveled through neighborhoods with low response rates. They implemented strategies Covid-19 response strategies like expanding digital access through meal distribution sites. And they worked with a diverse group of partner organizations like Bebashi, Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture, the Korean American Association of Greater Philadelphia, and the Philadelphia Corporation for Aging to promote participation throughout Philadelphia's diverse communities.

Local leaders demonstrated their commitment to a complete and accurate count as well. Mayor Kenney launched Philly Counts in January 2019, more than a year before the Census got underway, with 12 dedicated staff members and six paid fellows. The City partnered with the Philanthropy Network Greater Philadelphia and the United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey to create the Philly Counts Action Fund, which distributed grants from $2,500 to $25,000 to support organizations' Census outreach efforts, especially in hard to count communities. With the United Way’s pledge to match the first $400,000 in donations dollar for dollar, the Action Fund raised and distributed more than $700,000 in grants to 83 community partner organizations through the end of 2019.

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic cannot be overstated. Our collective public attention was focused on daily briefings and rising case counts when the Census should have been front and center. Local philanthropy rightly shifted its focus to supporting nonprofit service providers hit hard by the virus. Even Philly Counts staff shifted their focus to the City’s Covid-19 response efforts as ensuring the health and safety of our citizens became the priority.

It’s up to us now. If you haven’t completed the Census yet, do it right now. Make sure your family, friends, and neighbors are counted as well. Do you know how President Obama loves to say, “Don’t boo, vote!”? It's kind of like that. As we move into a future riddled with uncertainty, Philadelphia's recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic and economic recession will be even more difficult if we don't have our fair share of critical federal resources that support the most vulnerable members of our communities.

Don’t boo, get counted!

Chris Arlene

Chris Arlene

Blog

Chris Arlene

Don't Boo, Get Counted!