This is a pretty liberal reading of the code!
The relevant language is at Title 13, Chapter 7, Subchapter II, § 223 of the US Code. The section prevents the owner or manger of any hotel, apartment house, boarding or lodging house, tenement, or other building from refusing to provide a list of the buildings occupants or providing access to such premises. This means a buildings owner or manger cannot refuse to let a census worker into or out of the building and cannot refuse to provide a list of occupants for the purpose of the census count. The penalty for refusal is $500. No where in the section does it authorize entry into individual apartments, lodgings, or living quarters.
The relevant code section is found at:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode13/usc_sec_13_00000223-000-.html
From the original link. if not true, call out Barr for writing an article with factual faults.
This refers to entrance into a building, NOT entrance into an apartment or house.
E.g. there are some security buildings where they don’t let just anyone in, you have to be buzzed in by the person you are visiting or the manager — they do have to let a census worker into the buildings so they can knock on doors.
But see my post 24, for statement on the official census website, stating that census worker will never ask to enter your home.
I’m doing census work, we aren’t even supposed to open screens. Ring the bell, or knock on the outside of the screen door is what we are told to do. I’m all for being annoyed at the process, and participating on a minimal level, but we are warned repeatedly about driving, parking, etc - Barr should be embarrassed by this.
If my superiors ever told me such a thing, it would be at the top of Breaking News the same day.