ALAMEDA COUNTY (KCBS) -- April's census is still months away, but outreach efforts to increase participation in the population count are already underway in the East Bay.
Census figures will determine how hundreds of billions of federal taxpayer dollars will be shared.
Census forms will not be sent out until April and officials expect Alameda to be one of the 30 hardest to count counties in the nation.
KCBS' Chris Filippi Reports
East Bay Representative Barbara Lee said an accurate count would insure her district gets its fair share of federal support.
"Communities like mine which have a huge number of people who are unemployed, lack of health care. Many people have lost their homes," Lee said. "We need as much, in terms of federal funding initiatives as we can get."
Regional census spokesman Sonny Le said the count will be a challenge.
"Over the last ten years, our country has grown a lot, especially in the Bay Area," Le said. "You have the diversity in ethnicity's and cultures and languages as well."
The Census Bureau now estimates the 1990 population count missed more than 25,000 African Americans in Alameda and Contra Costa counties.
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