Renaissance Journalism has awarded a $10,000 reporting grant to San Francisco Public Press to investigate how the lingering digital divide might undermine Census 2020, the federal government’s massive effort to count every man, woman and child in the United States.
This year marks the first time that the U.S. Census Bureau will conduct the decennial count primarily online, creating a possible participation barrier for those without reliable access to the internet. Even in affluent and tech-savvy San Francisco, 10,000 people live in homes that lack internet access and 8,000 live on the streets or in temporary shelters.