Tuesday, March 2, Commissioner Fish and County Commissioner Deborah Kafoury spoke at the Portrait of America Tour, which made its last stop at Pioneer Courthouse Square. Previous stops, writes Kimberly Wilson in the March 3 Oregonian, included the Super Bowl, Atlanta's Martin Luther King, Jr. Day parade, and the Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco.

Commissioners Fish and Kafoury co-chair the Complete Count Committee, working to make sure historically undercounted communities are accurately represented in the 2010 Census.

The Census shapes the distribution of over $400 billion in federal money each year -

$4 trillion over the next 10 years. That funding supports housing, jobs, services for the elderly, parks, schools, and more. For every 100 people not counted, we lose $1.2 million each year for the next 10 years.

The historically undercounted communities in Multnomah County - communities of color, low-income residents, and the homeless, for example - are often most in need of government services. Not counting the approximately 1,600 people currently sleeping outdoors could cost Multnomah County $18 million over the next 10 years.

As Wilson writes in the Oregonian, "Hey you! Fill our your U.S. Census form when it arrives in the mail in two weeks!"