(A) The United States Constitution directs a decennial census count of all persons living in the United States.
(B) Complete, accurate census data is of critical importance to all residents of the City of Osseo for equal political representation, fair distribution of federal and state funding, and sound planning and investment in infrastructure, real estate, business development, and public policy and programming.
(C) During the decennial census, the United States Census Bureau conducts Non-Response Follow-up Operations (NRFU), when employees of the United States Census Bureau visit households that have not yet submitted a census form.
(D) Renters and others who live in multi-unit housing structures have historically been at higher risk of being undercounted in the decennial census, with the number of renter households in an area being the most influential variable affecting an area’s census self-response rate; in other words, the more renters in an area, the lower the self-response rate of that area.
(E) The risk of an undercount is compounded in areas with high concentrations of communities that have been consistently undercounted in the past and who are more likely to be renters, including low- income households, communities of color, Native American/American Indian communities, immigrants and refugees, and young people.
(F) Multi-unit housing structures can be difficult for Census Bureau employees to enter due to security barriers.
(G) It is critical that Census Bureau employees have access to multi-unit housing structures during the decennial census, so they can reach households that have not yet participated.
(H) Census Bureau employees are authorized by 13 U.S. Code § 223 to access “any hotel, apartment house, boarding or lodging house, tenement, or other building.”
(Ord. 2020-1, passed 3-23-2020)