Costa Howard Urges Residents to Complete 2020 Census, Help Community Secure Federal Resources

LOMBARD, Ill. – To ensure local communities receive appropriate resources from the federal government over the next decade, state Rep. Terra Costa Howard, D-Glen Ellyn, is encouraging residents to complete the 2020 census as soon as possible.

“The census determines how federal funding will be distributed over the next decade, directly impacting the investments in our schools, hospitals, roads, infrastructure, emergency and public safety services and public transportation,” said Costa Howard. “For every person who is not counted, we lose $18,000 in funding from the federal government. We cannot afford to miss out on the critical funding that will help our communities thrive for the next 10 years.”

Households should have alreadyt received a letter in the mail with a unique census identification code that can be used to complete the census online or on the phone. Whether or not residents have received this code, the census can still be completed either online, by mail or by phone. Information on how to respond using each of these methods can be found at 2020Census.gov.

In addition to determining federal funding and resources for local communities, census data is used to draw legislative district boundaries and will be used to determine how many representatives Illinoisans has in Congress.

“Because the census can be completed completely from home, it is one of the easiest and safest ways to support our community during this pandemic,” Costa Howard added. “Census workers will be going door-to-door later this summer to compile missing census data. Filling out the census beforehand will streamline the entire process and reduce the person-to-person contact needed to complete the census, which will help keep us all safer.”