Some Motel Residents Shun Census

Census workers are complaining that taking an accurate count at some residential motels in Orange County has been one of their most difficult chores because of reluctant populations and the resistance of motel owners who seek to protect their customers’ privacy.

Yet, the workers say, the motel dwellers should be counted, because Orange County’s receipt of federal aid to the poor depends upon a full count of the population that lives in motels.

“These people need financial help,” said Thom Burgert, an Orange County census supervisor who specializes in counting the homeless and others who live in nontraditional settings. “The only way for them to get help is to get counted.”

The effort is complicated by the difficulty census workers have distinguishing between residential motels and standard vacation inns. Census procedures specify that only motels accepting special vouchers for emergency shelter can be officially counted as residential motels, officials said.

That makes the El Dorado Inn in Anaheim one of the few motels known to census workers where residents will be counted as homeless people. Residents of other motels, even if they’ve lived in the inns for years, will be counted as living in regular homes, which could affect funding to help such people.

On Sunday, managers at Anaheim’s El Dorado Inn asked census workers, and a reporter who accompanied them, to leave after they had been there for about an hour.

Burgert said the El Dorado has resisted prior attempts at census taking by not answering telephone calls from the census administration asking for population information and informing the inn of upcoming visits. As a result, he said, those attempts counted only an estimated 20% of the El Dorado’s residents.

Motel management declined to comment, but Burgert said the motel did not want census takers there because it had not been notified of the Sunday visit in advance. He said the management had been informed that census takers would arrive, but was not given a specific date.

Under federal law, census workers are allowed on the property for their counts. And Burgert said he will return to the motel later this week, once the disagreement is settled.

Officials must finish their count this week.

People who live in motels often are difficult to count because they live in fear of drawing attention to themselves, Burgert and other census officials said.

Some are ashamed to be living in a motel; others worry that census takers will give information to the police or other agencies.

Some motel owners, knowing that their customers are leery of the census, attempt to protect them by refusing to give listings of their residents or return phone calls from census officials.

“Shelters and places like resident motels in some cases are very cooperative because they understand that this is important,” Burgert said. “But others believe they are protecting clients by not providing information on residents.”

The three-story El Dorado Inn is estimated to house 400 to 500 people.

“I don’t feel this will help us. The local government is trying to get us out of here already,” said a second-floor resident who identified himself as “Angel” but refused to talk to census workers.

If city officials find out how many residents the motel has, he said, they might move more quickly to evict them.