 I'm going to talk about the 2020 census and the fact that you and the future of all of us is in what you make. And today we're going to talk with Ken, mom, who has been doggedly trying to get everybody connected to the system. So Aloha to him, and thank you for taking the time to be with us. Oh, thank you very much, Martha. I'm Marcia. Marcia, can you hear me? Yeah. Marcia, can you hear me, Marcia? Yeah, we can hear you. Ken is not only part of really working with the census to get everybody counted, but he is also the chair of the Kalihi Palama Labor Bureau. Did I get that right? Yes, you did, Mark. Marcia, can you hear me? Yes, we can. Okay, so I just give you a knuckle, but it's okay. We'll make it work. Okay. Ken, tell us you have been so on this about the census. Tell us why you need everyone to be counted and what it means, especially in Hawaii. Well, first off, you know, the the census itself is something that, you know, is federally required. But beyond all that is it represents resources to the community or the lack thereof. If we have people who are not counted, it's about $2,600 per person for 10 years that we lose in funding for, you know, different types of vital services from Head Start to senior programs to Medicaid. So there's a lot that are at stake for people who aren't counted. Furthermore, one of the other issues is that if we don't meet certain population benchmarks, then we may not qualify for certain funding kickers, if you will, or things where it's at higher populations that they're afforded a little bit more funding. The federal government has close to about $700 billion that goes to the states and provided that a state meets the population requirements, they can get more or less money. So on this side, we want to get as much resources as possible for the betterment of our community. But I'm speaking of our community as a whole. No, no, no, as a smaller. And maybe it's Hawaiian, maybe with an N, a small N, and maybe it's Hawaiian population for all of the special programs. How does that affect those? Or does it? You know, when it comes to different programs, I'm sure that it has, you know, I know that in terms of direct effect, because if we look at the persons who use a lot of different services, and it's not a bad thing, but think about things like Head Start. The reason I keep bringing that up is because, you know, a child that has the ability to have early childhood education, their outcomes as the years go by are actually a lot more productive towards society. And less in terms of deviant behavior, less in terms of those who are incarcerated. So having that first initial foundation for education is vital. That's why I'll push things like that for it, as well as for parents to have that peace of mind if their children aren't school. But all these programs cost money. And again, it comes down to population. So we want to make sure every person is counted. And then to say, you know, we can focus more on the seniors here, but when it comes to even from Medicaid and even other groups from there, that's about, you know, we got about a billion dollars, I believe, in 2016 from the Fed. So, you know, the trend of people needing more healthcare is to rise. And, you know, this is part of it. And when we talk about different grants or different services, social services, homelessness, a lot of it is derived from the census data as to what money we can qualify for. So that's very important. And you want to talk more also in other native farm programs where when you talk about different grants, a lot of that is centered in the census. Well, yes, I was thinking mainly of the immersion program, those schools that are set aside for children to learn the Hawaiian language and to function in that language. That's really what I was thinking about in terms of the amount of money that goes into that. And if they're not counted, what does that do to programs like immersion? That's where I was going with that. Oh, well, I mean, it's all programs and their funding. So, I mean, there are different types of funding streams that come from different places, but you need to have, you know, there's some set of size, but also when it comes to different populations as well, maybe different population benchmarks. So, if we are not all counted, and I mean babies and adults and seniors and people incarcerated and people in the university, if we're not all counted, we all lose. Is that true? That is correct. I mean, you know, when it comes to, you know, again, you were talking about seniors, you know, programs like the handyman, those are federally funded programs are public transportation systems. Those are, you know, a lot of it are heavily federally subsidized. So, you know, we, you know, just take the handyman, for example, the growth rate is about 5% every single year, as in people needing the services as it goes along. And, you know, there's a hurt for money and resources that even if we were to, you know, open up the county coffers, we still would not really meet that demand. So, we need those federal dollars. It's very important to maintain and increase, if we can, those services to fit the needs of our community and the serve the public. Well, now you touched on seniors and health care. So, that includes $1 billion. How does that billion dollars come with Medicare, Medicaid, and what else? So, I think just for that one alone, I think it was about, that is just the Medicaid from my understanding. I think Medicare has other types of streams, but just, you know, the other vital services, I can send you, there's this thing that's in the census and it shows a breakdown of the money that we've got and where it all went to in a different services. So, even people who may not even consider, let's say foster care or something like that, where that money is brought by the federal government to handle some of those addressing those different points. But there's, you know, the census has a website and I think I can go ahead and refer to some different data points, but just of how immense it is of what is at stake if we don't have a good proper count and the services and resources that could be gained or lost on how successful we are. And again, I want to put a plug in for this is we look at the census right now. They've only been able to fill about 54% of their positions and they're going to have something at a home of the community college on the 31st. And I can share that information and you can share that with your members on here. But they're looking for people who want to work part time. It is not a full time position. It is very, very temporary, but people who are living in low income areas or they, you know, are able to qualify for housing. They're waivers for which they will not lose their benefits. You obviously have to check with the census on so that they can maintain the benefits that they have. They won't lose them. But they'll have a little bump in income too as well. And, you know, when it comes to the community who knows their community best and people from their community. So hopefully there's a little bit of trust added to that as well. If you, I'm going to take your area, Vincent, Kalihikulama. So if you have people that live in Kalihikulama and take these jobs and work in that district, people have more of a trust. Am I getting that right? Well, I mean, that was what, you know, for me, I would hope would be because, you know, if you have a neighbor that's there that's helping, hopefully there's a little more trust involved with somebody else outside knocking on your door saying hi, I'm from the census. Here's my ID card. But if it's somebody who happens to have the ID card that actually works for the census that's from your area, it will be more open to, you know, what's going on and as well as the information coming as, hey, you know, if we do this, we have the potential for more resources. So, you know, having that community connection is important and also working with different groups like Holy Community Foundation. There's also a Constituent of Advancement. There's a different count committees as well as the Farrington Alumni Association. That's something that, you know, they're going to try to do their part on. So every group needs to kind of do their part to this larger intricate puzzle of making sure that everyone gets counted. Well, now I'm reading from the census material and it says Census Day is April 1. Persons and persons visit households that have not responded. So you can respond, it says, by telephone, internet, or write-in. Now, let's talk about, especially in your neighborhood where you have so many languages. It says here that the internet has 59 different languages. But my question to you, then, is if the webpage is in English, how do I know there's 59 languages if I don't speak English? So how are we going to get past that? You know, I think that that's where hopefully our other community members and stakeholders come into play. You know, there is different, you know, from different health care groups and providers to just community organizations such as the neighborhood board. To try to get the word out as much as possible. And then not only just get the word out, but see if we can connect with different groups. For example, we have, you know, various types of language that are spoken. And, you know, from, you know, what is allowed to people helping with translation or, you know, getting somebody to a computer where they're able to do it or on a paper. But kind of handhold them through the process. Again, you know, for us, it's a lot of the resources that has gained or lost if we don't do this right. So the assumption that people are just going to know, I think, needs to kind of go away and, you know, this kind of, okay, we, there's more at stake here than just, oh, people can figure it out. We need to really guide them through the process and develop that trust along the way because there are going to be questions asked, you know, how many people are living in a household. Some people may not want to answer. And we can talk about, you know, Title 13 of U.S. Code says that, you know, this should not be used for anything other than the census. But it's that developed trust that's over time and those community members who've gained that trust over time to be that voice. Of course, because, you know, in Chinatown, you have all of these people that are immigrants that live and work here, but they come from countries where you wouldn't dare tell the government all of this information. So that's a hard thing to get over. So having someone from the community like a Chinatown, someone that speaks their language, it looks like them that they can trust, I think, means more than anything. And your neighbor, too, I don't mean to just... Yeah, I mean, I have, for example, I have a large part, you know, Chinese population of seniors in my area. You know, it's... I want to try to reach out to them through, you know, the Khojib Phalama Health Center and some of the services that they have and offer to... You know, this is important that they're on there, too, talk to the different other types of health services and so this mental health to make sure that they're... You know, what are they doing in contribution to the larger effort for this count? And you know what? I think that on that part, I think we're doing what we can, but the next part, too, is now the hiring of enumerators, as was mentioned. So that's going to be important, that door-to-door knock of the people who didn't want to do it. It's obviously, you know, part of a safety issue, but I think as a part, if you're coming from the community, I think hopefully that that level of trust part of somebody, you know, not from the community is alleviated because you know this person, you know. That's kind of the hope with it, that I hope that the people who are willing to take a look at it, sign up, see if they qualify and they'll be part of the census enumerators that are going to be going door-to-door. And it's a good way to meet your community and also find out, you know, what are the different issues that are going on as well? Well, of course, the big thing for me, and I talked about it every time we mentioned this, and that is in 2021, we will be redistricting. We also, if everybody, including new babies, because the baby only has to be one day old, everybody is counted, we have enough population for a third congressional district. So what does that mean, Martha, when you march by the third congressional district? Right now we have two. In 2021, we have two congresspeople, two senators, but every state has two senators. That means we only, and we only have four votes, four people that represent our state. Another congressional district would give us one more congressional person to represent us. And I think we, I feel we should. Now, Ohio, for some reason, screwed up on the last census, and they lost two congresspeople. So we have to be sure, hey, that everybody, because we can't lose, we cannot lose one, number one, and we have to have another congressperson. We are big enough, sophisticated enough, have enough, all of the same issues that other states have, we need to be represented. So that's what it means. Very nice. Yeah, and you know, to add to that is, is that, you know, that means that means we may have an additional seat on another committee that, you know, may bring dollars to Hawaii, or at least, you know, voice the concerns of what's going on too, as well. It does. It does. It gives us a little bit more. Right now they don't pay attention to Hawaii. And, and because all of our, except in the Senate, we have to seniority, but the two House members have no seniority, so they are way down on committees, you know. Excuse me. So we need another boost. We need a little bit more power in, you know, if one votes one way and one votes the other, it cancels out and we're not there. So we do need, and people need to understand that that's what it's saying. And if we don't do it, it'll be another 20 years before this happens. So we need to do it now. Everybody, every baby that's born on the last day of March, count it. Well, let me just also add this part two is that, you know, it's not, it's every person here, and it doesn't mean about even for students, even if they're not, you know, from here, even people from somewhere else. The point is, is that, you know, as it was referred to me, was anything or a person here at the time that has impact on the infrastructure too well, it should be counted because that's, you know, it's about the impact of what's going on. So think about like roads, potholes, freeways, people who are even not from here are still part of, you know, a part of the, yeah, part of the infrastructure. They do impact, like you said, about the highways that funding for the highways, that's where it comes from. Yes. All of these things that we take the granted that the weather people and all the satellite and all of those things impact all of us, whether we are residents of Hawaii or just in the military or dependents or in college at the different universities, all of that counts and in terms of what it does to the environment. So yes, everybody has to be counted. Agreed. So we are, we really, really want everybody to recognize the importance of this. And again, you mentioned privacy. So would you repeat that? Because that's most important, especially people that are afraid of the government they came from. I will say, I will say it again, but I know that it will take somebody from where they left to really, you know, embed that trust. But, you know, according to, you know, US co title 13, we're talking about the census. The census can only be used for the purpose of, you know, counting the population and it doesn't go beyond that. In fact, people now from 70 years ago, their information is now being disclosed, but that's 70 years from when they did it. So that information is protected for that moment, for that period of time. And, you know, people need to have that peace of mind, though it is going to take more than just me saying this, that their information will be protected, that you won't be getting, you know, knock on the doors from immigration or other things like that. Because the US census does not work and it has those, this is just to get a count of the population. So, we, again, we must be counted everyone because you, you shake the future. We need you, we need you to be counted. And I want to thank you again for stopping by the bus stop to call in. Yeah, they're here for that too. Thank you so much, Ken. And enjoy the rest of your bus ride. And we will talk to you next time. Thank you very much, Marcia.