Published: November 04, 2009 06:24 pm      

City fights for valid addresses

DANVILLE — A GPS-enabled handheld computer is new for the 2010 Census and was supposed to ensure each structure is recorded accurately.

This also is the first time that group quarters (group homes, dormitories, prisons and homeless shelters) are part of the address canvassing operation to improve the final count’s accuracy.

But problems have surfaced with U.S. Postal Service addresses being different than street or cul-de-sac names. Also, in some cases, numbers or roman numerals spelled out in an address are making a difference and entire buildings have been missed.

That’s why the city is working with census officials to update the address list for the area. One final opportunity to add addresses prior to the mailing of the census questionnaires in March will take place as part of a new construction program in early 2010.

The total number of added addresses in the official census address list compared to the total number of deleted addresses in the city already shows (from housing units) that there will be a lower city population in 2010 than 2000.

Those numbers are only 50 different (424 added addresses to 474 deleted). Danville Planning and Zoning Manager Chris Milliken estimates the city has lost at least 1,000 people. But the city is now fighting for 962 addresses that local officials claim are valid city addresses that census canvassing has deleted.

Local jurisdictions, such as municipalities can help census officials update census addresses. They also can help add new construction, such as the new senior housing at Deer Creek Manor on North Vermilion Street.

Milliken said sides of streets and buildings were missed in the canvassing, such as at Fair Oaks and Lake Forest Apartments and two streets in the Lake Shores subdivision.

Other buildings, such as the downtown business Java Hut, weren’t counted as a residential property even though owners Don and Marie Pribble live upstairs. They didn’t live upstairs at the time of the 2000 Census.

Also, some former and current city officials don’t even have valid addresses listed with the Census Bureau.

Others in the list, about 15-20 percent, have two to three units that weren’t totally counted and other senior housing complexes such as Liberty Estates, also weren’t counted, Milliken said. He’s now working with a Nov. 20 deadline to verify those addresses and provide documentation to census officials.

Milliken has narrowed the list down to about 600 addresses since Oct. 21.

He estimates that 25 to 30 of those, however, are valid addresses of vacant buildings that probably won’t be occupied by next year’s census form distribution.The city will submit an appeal for the addresses to be reviewed and then wait to hear back.

“We’re doing a great deal of work …,” Mayor Scott Eisenhauer said.

But the work is absolutely to the city’s advantage.

Every person counts in the census, Milliken said about Community Development Block Grant funding distribution based on the city’s population and the Danville Area Transportation Study program.

Danville’s population increased by only 76 with the 2000 census, to 33,904 from 33,828, and that was due to the annexation of the Danville Correctional Center and its 1,835 inmates. The city’s 2008 population estimate is 32,248.

At Tuesday night’s city council meeting, Eisenhauer read a proclamation that the city is partnering with the U.S. Census Bureau in the 2010 Census Count.

A local Complete Count Committee also is focusing on keeping the census on people‘s minds and making sure there are more responses than in 2000.

An immediate answer was not available through census media specialists in Chicago on the address canvassing issues.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the address canvassing operation was conducted this past spring/summer. Census workers might have knocked on doors to verify addresses and inquired about additional living quarters on the premises.

All census information collected, including addresses, are confidential and protected by law. By law, the Census Bureau cannot share respondents’ answers with the FBI, IRS, CIA, Welfare, Immigration or any other government agency.

No court of law or law enforcement agency can find out respondents’ answers. All Census Bureau employees — including temporary employees — take an oath for life to keep census information confidential. Any violation of that oath is punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and five years in prison.

“A complete and accurate address list is the cornerstone of a successful census,” said Tom Mesen-bourg, acting director of the U.S. Census Bureau. “The ability to capture GPS coordinates for most of the nation’s housing units will greatly reduce the number of geographic coding errors caused by using paper maps in previous counts.”

“The primary goal of the census is to count everyone once, only once, and in the right place,” Mesenbourg said. “Because the census is used for reapportioning seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and the distribution of more than $435 billion in federal dollars every year to state and local governments, it’s essential to get this first step right.”