Getting Started on Census 2010

When most of us got back from our summer vacations this year, we found a big stack of mail waiting for us in our offices. For county chief elected officials, that stack should have included a letter dated Aug. 10 inviting their counties to participate in the 2010 Local Update of Census Addresses. Known as the “LUCA” program, this activity asks each local government in the country to participate in the creation of the address list that will be used by the Census Bureau for the 2010 Census.

In the letter from Census Bureau Director Louis Kincannon, each government is asked to choose one of three options to participate in the LUCA program. These include an opportunity for counties to review and update the Census Bureau’s master address list, or to submit their own local address list to the bureau in a specified format, and a chance to review and update the legal boundaries and features on Census Bureau maps.

Although this is an invitation letter and counties have the option of participating or not, let’s look at some reasons why every county in the country should participate.

First, think about the growth and development that has occurred in your county since Census Day 2000, when the last address update was conducted for the 2000 Census. Based on the July 2006 housing unit count, more than 8.6 million new housing units have been added since then. In addition the population of the country has grown from more than 241 million counted on Census Day to more than 302 million as of September 2007.

Second, federal and state funding formulas use the data from the census to make allocations. If your county’s data is not accurate, your local government could wind up losing revenue for many years.

Finally, and probably more important to counties, is the use of this data for local government planning. Address information can determine the need for service delivery changes, roads, bridges and other forms of transportation. It is also used to plan for schools, target services to special populations, budgetary planning, housing forecasts and monitoring local demographic trends.

In the wake of Sept. 11, this data also helps counties plan and prepare their public safety and emergency preparedness programs.

If your government decides to participate, it should select one of the address update options and complete the product preference form and return it to the Census Bureau. The next step is to complete and sign the registration form and return it also.

Once you have designated a LUCA program liaison and appropriate reviewers, each of them must sign a confidentiality agreement if receiving address information from the Census Bureau.

Counties have until the end of January 2008 to reply to their invitation letters and register for LUCA. Upon completing the required registration process, the Census Bureau will ship the appropriate LUCA review materials to the participating governments.

Governments have until March 2008 to review and update the address lists with their current files and return the data to the local regional office.

The Census Bureau has until October 2008 to review a county’s submission and to update its master address file and the geographic database using the information it received from your county.

Once this information has been updated, the bureau will conduct the address canvassing operation which will check all of the updated and current addresses using hand-held computers to verify the existence and physical location of each address. This process must be completed by June 2009 so that Census feedback on your county’s address updates, and whether all have been incorporated into the Master Address File can be sent to counties no later than October 2009.

Counties that participate in the LUCA review processes that update the Census Address files have until December 2009 to review the final list and file appeals with the LUCA Appeals Office.

All appeals must be resolved by January 2010, since Census forms go into the mail shortly after that in preparation for Census Day, April 1, 2010.

If your county has limited resources and can only afford to do one or two things to help with the census effort, this should be one of them. No other census-related activity will be as important in the long run as participating in the address file update.

Other activities on the horizon include partnership activities that will be useful in reaching the hard-to-count or the reluctant responders among your residents. The Census Bureau plans call for hiring a partnership specialist for your area who will help counties get involved in this vital activity.

If the proposed Census Budget for 2008 is approved by Congress in a timely manner, counties should start seeing outreach activities and programs shortly thereafter. This will include the hiring of additional staff for local census offices. Many of you may also remember the television ads with celebrities like Oscar de la Hoya, Derek Jeter and the talking census form that were prominently televised prior to the 2000 Census. Outreach materials also included print ads in many magazines and newspapers, posters by famous artists and other handouts for counties to make available to encourage participation when Census Day arrives.

If you have any questions about your county’s participation in LUCA contact jbyers@naco.org. Additional information about the LUCA program can be found at www.census.gov/geo/www/luca2010/luca.html.

(Research News was written by Jacqueline Byers, director of research.)