Census takers are being denied access to some of the city’s fancier apartment towers, including several in Lower Manhattan, according to a spokeswoman for the U.S. Census Bureau.

Since May 1, hundreds of census workers, called “enumerators,” have been knocking on the doors of households that either didn't mail back their 2010 census form or didn't receive one. But in more than a dozen high-rise Manhattan apartment buildings—at least five of which are Downtown—doormen aren’t allowing those workers to survey residents in their buildings. Veronica Lavarro, a spokeswoman for the Bureau, said the agency suspects that the main reason surveyors are being turned away from certain buildings has been building mangers’ deference to their residents’ privacy.

“People pay for privacy in certain buildings, but by law, we really should be given access to those buildings,” Lavarro said. “If you have whole buildings that are not [surveyed], it obviously reduces the accuracy of the count. That affects the entire community.”

The problem has caught the attention of Rep. Jerrold Nadler and City Councilwoman Margaret Chin, who said the Census Bureau contacted them for assistance earlier this month. Citing the hundreds of billions of federal dollars that are doled out to cities and towns according to their census results, both Nadler and Chin said they have reached out to building management companies, as well as condominium and co-op boards, to start letting the census workers into their buildings. Representatives for both officials said they have had some success in their early dealings with the buildings, but that talks are still ongoing.

“I think part of the problem is that condo and co-op boards aren’t aware that the federal law trumps their rules about people entering the building,” said Ilan Kayatsky, a spokesman for Nadler’s office. “There probably needs to be better communication and education on our part as to what the laws actually say, so we can address any worries they might have about [the census].”

Lavarro said the Bureau could not legally reveal publicly which buildings in the city were refusing entry to census takers. A spokesman for Councilmember Chin said the buildings involved are “generally luxury” high-rise towers.

“We must make sure every single person is counted in Lower Manhattan,” Chin said via e-mail. “For every person that goes uncounted, we lose $3,000 federal dollars. And that’s money we desperately need.”

The U.S. Census, taken every ten years, is used to allot Congressional seats, as well as dictate the distribution of more than $400 billion annually to local and state governments for infrastructure needs including housing assistance, hospitals, schools and roads. 

“Management companies must find a solution to ensure that we get full and accurate Census counts in all of their buildings,” Nadler said in an e-mail to the Trib. “Census information is critical for the needs of Congressional districts and communities.”

Lavarro said the Bureau, with the help of local elected officials, hopes to reach a compromise with building managers sometime before the door-to-door surveying is scheduled to wrap up on July 10. If that doesn’t happen, Lavarro said, the agency could issue a formal demand for access to residential buildings.

“We like to do it first through cooperation in the community,” Lavarro said, “but we do have a form letter that we issue that basically says ‘Give us access so we can do our job.’”