City of Tyler principal planner Michael Howell addresses the Tyler Planning and Zoning Commission about major site plan changes to Broadway Square Mall during a Tyler Planning and Zoning Commission meeting on Tuesday May 1, 2018. (Sarah A. Miller/Tyler Morning Telegraph)

A local government agency is working with the U.S. Census Bureau to put together a committee to find hard-to-count people during the 2020 survey.

The U.S. Census Bureau is a federal agency that compiles nationwide demographic statistics. The census survey is conducted every 10 years, and the next one starts on April 1, 2020.

Michael Howell, the manager for the Tyler Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, said he has started outreach to create a committee to reach hard-to-count people, and the group would start meeting in July.

The Tyler Area Metropolitan Planning Organization does transportation planning for most parts of Smith County, including the cities of Arp, Bullard, Hideaway, Lindale, New Chapel Hill, Noonday, Troup, Tyler, Whitehouse and Winona.

Howell said the organization does this kind of outreach during every census because transportation grants are based on population, and if everyone in the area is counted, the organization can apply for the right amount of money in grants.

Howell said he is reaching out to the Smith County government, city governments and school districts, as well as the NAACP, the Hispanic Business Alliance and the Jewish community, asking each one to send a representative to sit on the committee.

The U.S. Census Bureau identifies hard-to-count populations as racial and ethnic minorities; people who do not speak English fluently, and/or have lower incomes, and/or are homeless; undocumented immigrants; young, mobile people; children; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning people; and people who distrust the government.

A U.S. Census Bureau study from 2016 said some reasons people may be hard to count is that they have suffered discrimination in the past, do not have access to the internet, do not speak English well or they are part of a group called the “cynical fifth,” a group of about 20 percent of the U.S. population that is angry with the government.

“The Census Bureau cannot publicly release any responses in any way that could identify a survey respondent,” a spokeswoman for the agency said. “The law protecting census responses is strong and clear: respondent answers can only be used to produce statistics and cannot be used against them.”

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