Local Update of Census Addresses (LUCA)
LUCA was the only opportunity for local governments to enhance the accuracy of the census by providing the Census Bureau with an updated list of residential addresses. An updated mailing list ensures that census mailings will reach as many households as possible.
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
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Population counts determine:
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Reapportionment of Congressional seats (New York State lost two Congressional seats in 2000, the second one by 50,000 people and is projected to lose another two after the 2010 Census)
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Redistricting of State Legislative Districts
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Municipal infrastructure planning
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Per Capita funding allocation, Federal and State grant allocation
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Transportation planning
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Health care planning
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Many other decisions based on population and socio-economic characteristics
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Census taking in the U.S. is done almost entirely by mail. The Census Bureau develops a complete list of addresses using the Postal Service and other sources. This list is called the Master Address File (MAF) and while every effort is made to have a complete file, many residential addresses are still missed. Only with local assistance can the hardest to find addresses be included in the Census 2010 MAF.
This process started in 2006 with an assessment of local, regional and statewide address databases. In the first half of 2007 county and municipal outreach was done. G/FLRPC, in association with the NYS Data Center and the U.S. Census Bureau coordinated LUCA informational/training sessions in each county throughout the first two weeks of March.
During the second half of 2007 address databases were acquired and processed in order to produce “local” master address files. A wide range of address datasets were obtained. These lists arrived in a variety of formats and many needed to be digitized and reformatted.
Finally, from December 2007 through May 2008 local MAFs were compared with Census MAFs to create an address file that was as close to being 100% accurate as possible. In April and May each of the nine counties’ revised Census MAFs were submitted to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The Local Update of Census Addresses Appeals process was the second and final phase of the LUCA program. Similar to the first phase of LUCA, G/FLRPC acted as the liaison for all participating counties in the region. The intent of this program was to appeal addresses that were not accepted in the original LUCA process by confirming the existence of as many rejected addresses as possible. These addresses were then returned to the Census Bureau with proof/evidence of their existence.
G/FLRPC received files for eight out of the nine Counties in the G-FL Region on October 31, 2009 and the final County on November 24, 2009. The Census Bureau originally gave reviewers 30 calendar days to complete the appeal, but later this deadline was extended to 45 days.
Many of the addresses submitted to the Census Bureau during the original LUCA submission were accepted. It is important to note that all of the addresses accepted were not new addresses to be added to the MAF; many were already present in the original MAFs but were accepted as corrections.
A large number of addresses were not accepted from the first round of LUCA and were returned to G/FLRPC with the potential to be appealed. These addresses were rejected for a number of reasons. The two most common reasons were the Census Bureau not being able to find the location of the addresses during field verification, or the addresses did not appear to be residential properties. Some of these addresses should have been accepted, and would later be appealed. The number of rejected addresses was inflated because the Census Bureau included many duplicate addresses in the files that were returned, which needed to be deleted because they were not able to be appealed. The Census Bureau also included addresses in the returned files that were deleted during address canvassing independent of the addresses originally submitted during the first phase of LUCA. The Census Bureau allowed these address deletions to be appealed during the process along with the rejected addresses.
In order to appeal addresses, the Census Bureau required the submission of quality address sources in order to prove that each of the addresses in question existed as residences. The original LUCA address submission sources were reexamined to determine which were of a high enough quality to use in an appeal and which were not. Further information was collected and submitted to the Census in order to illustrate the strength and validity of each source. This source information included frequency of updates, update methods, quality assurance measures, uses of data, and inclusion of property use labels. The sources that were used to file the appeal included County files as well as a multitude of local municipal sources.
In order to be able to submit the maximum amount of appeals with quality proof in the given time frame some counties agreed to give assistance, as did a number of municipalities. This local knowledge and proof that was gathered helped G/FLRPC to be able to appeal more addresses in addition to strengthening the appeal of other addresses.
G/FLRPC then reviewed the rejected addresses as well as the addresses deleted during canvassing and compared them to each of the address sources to determine which to appeal. The final step in the process consisted of combining all of the appeals and proof information. The final appeals were then sent back to the Census Bureau.
At this point we would like to thank all of the counties, municipalities, agencies and organizations that assisted in this initiative. If you have any questions about the LUCA process please contact us at
gflrpc@gflrpc.org or 585-454-0190.For more information on the U.S. Census Bureau LUCA program visit:
http://www.census.gov/geo/www/luca2010/luca.html
50
West Main Street, Suite 8107
Rochester, New York 14614
tel:
585.454.0190
fax: 585.454.0191
Last Modified: March 04, 2010