Southeast Area : Census Bureau Canvass

Census takers began canvassing several Southeast area communities this week to follow up on questionnaires sent to almost 240,000 households on March 14.

But the number of households in the survey was cut roughly in half last week when the U. S. Census Bureau decided the low response rate by mail threatened the completion of the interim census.

Those cities included in the survey--which is being conducted in the Southeast and San Gabriel Valley areas--are Bell Gardens, Commerce, East Los Angeles, Montebello, Monterey Park, Pico Rivera, South El Monte, South San Gabriel and in the western Whittier-Los Nietos area.

The follow-up by census takers will include going door-to-door to those households that did not return questionnaires, which mainly ask questions about income, age, race and sex of residents and type of housing.