evidence: Milwaukee is looking to "set the record straight" with its formal challenge of the 2020 U.S. Census that charted a drop in the city's population in the decade since the previous survey, Mayor Cavalier Johnson said this week. [...] Johnson argued the federal funds are particularly critical as the city faces increasingly difficult budgets. They are used to provide access to affordable housing and support nonprofit organizations in addition to funding Milwaukee Public Schools, he said. [...] City officials argue the census undercounted the total housing units in Milwaukee by 2,394 and likely over-counted vacant units by about 4,055 for a total of about 15,800 people, Johnson wrote in a five-page letter to U.S. Census Bureau Director Robert Santos.