Brooklyn, N.Y. – On Monday, August 26, 2013, at 10:00 a.m., Representative Yvette D. Clarke will host a public information forum about the U.S. Census at Kings County Hospital Center.

In the 2010, the Census Bureau claimed that New York City had a population of 8,175,133, about 200,000 less than the agency itself had previously estimated. An investigation by the New York Times determined that there are several neighborhoods, particularly in Brooklyn, in which the Census Bureau had not counted every resident, referred to as an “undercount.”

“We must consider participation in the census our duty as members of a civil society,” said Representative Clarke. “We cannot allow the neighborhoods of Brooklyn to receive a disproportionately lower share of state and federal support as a result of lower completion rates for the U.S. Census. We need this support to keep our hospitals open to the public, to reduce class sizes in our schools, and to maintain our roads and bridges.”

An “undercount” of Brooklyn’s population reduces both the amount of funds allocated to New York State for programs such as Medicaid, transportation, community development, and education.

Speakers at the forum will include Pastor Gilford T. Monrose of Mt. Zion Church of God, Rosemarie Fogarty, an Information Services Specialist with the Census Bureau, and Barbara Ferry, a Data Dissemination Specialist with the Census Bureau.

U.S. Representative Yvette D. Clarke is a member of the House Committee on Small Business, Ethics, and Homeland Security, where she is the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Security Technologies. She represents many neighborhoods in central and southern Brooklyn, NY which include Brownsville, Crown Heights, East Flatbush, Flatbush, Gerritsen Beach, Madison, Midwood, parts of Park Slope and Flatlands, Prospect Heights, Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, Sheepshead Bay, and Windsor Terrace.