WNYC talks with Afreen Alam, a worker with the Chhaya Community Development Corporation that believes the undercount happened because census workers didn't understand the "housing underworld":
"People who double up, people who are afraid to talk because of the documentation status or even social stigma, even if you are documented but you can't afford to live in an apartment by yourself, you have three other families living with you," she said.
"I think census failed to capture that hidden population," she said. "Unfortunately they will remain hidden."
Comments
New York Undercounted
"Brooklyn officials are calling foul on new Census numbers that set the population at 8.175 million people rather than the 8.4 million that locals supposed."
Those are the figures for NY city as a whole, not just for Brooklyn.
Charles Siegel