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Municipal Government Six communities win census challenge
Six Massachusetts communities, including the state’s three largest cities, have successfully challenged the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2008 population estimates.
The challenges by Boston, Worcester, Springfield, Fitchburg, Westfield and Bridgewater will add significantly to the amount of Community Development Block Grant money the communities receive in the current fiscal year, according to Susan Strate, who directs the Population Estimates program at the University of Massachusetts’ Donahue Institute.
A study by the Brookings Institute suggests that each additional resident who is included in a census count results in almost $1,500 in additional aid for that community per year. One other study arrived at a figure of $226 per person. But even at the lower estimate, a city such as Westfield, whose population estimate increased by more than 1,500, would receive an additional $340,000. In Boston, where the population estimate rose by 11,512, the additional revenue would total at least $2.6 million.
Beginning in 2007, the Donahue Institute took on the role of helping cities and towns boost their population estimates. The Massachusetts Institute for Social and Economic Research, known as MISER, had been responsible for reviewing data that is used to produce census estimates until it lost its state funding in 2002.
In 2008, according to Strate, the Donahue Institute worked primarily with communities with colleges or universities in their midst in order to ensure that students in dormitories, as well as other people living in institutional settings, were taken into account. This past year, the emphasis shifted to ensuring that the Census Bureau wasn’t over-estimating the number of housing units that had been demolished, or overlooking newly created homes.
The Census Bureau estimates, Strate said, are based on a national survey that may not take into account regional practices, such as the popularity in New England of converting former mills into housing.
In Worcester, for example, “We found the case of an old commercial building that had been turned into 97 condos,” Strate said. The condominium units were added as part of the revised estimate.
Municipal Government Six communities win census challenge
Six communities win census challenge
Six Massachusetts communities, including the state’s three largest cities, have successfully challenged the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2008 population estimates.
The challenges by Boston, Worcester, Springfield, Fitchburg, Westfield and Bridgewater will add significantly to the amount of Community Development Block Grant money the communities receive in the current fiscal year, according to Susan Strate, who directs the Population Estimates program at the University of Massachusetts’ Donahue Institute.
A study by the Brookings Institute suggests that each additional resident who is included in a census count results in almost $1,500 in additional aid for that community per year. One other study arrived at a figure of $226 per person. But even at the lower estimate, a city such as Westfield, whose population estimate increased by more than 1,500, would receive an additional $340,000. In Boston, where the population estimate rose by 11,512, the additional revenue would total at least $2.6 million.
Beginning in 2007, the Donahue Institute took on the role of helping cities and towns boost their population estimates. The Massachusetts Institute for Social and Economic Research, known as MISER, had been responsible for reviewing data that is used to produce census estimates until it lost its state funding in 2002.
In 2008, according to Strate, the Donahue Institute worked primarily with communities with colleges or universities in their midst in order to ensure that students in dormitories, as well as other people living in institutional settings, were taken into account. This past year, the emphasis shifted to ensuring that the Census Bureau wasn’t over-estimating the number of housing units that had been demolished, or overlooking newly created homes.
The Census Bureau estimates, Strate said, are based on a national survey that may not take into account regional practices, such as the popularity in New England of converting former mills into housing.
In Worcester, for example, “We found the case of an old commercial building that had been turned into 97 condos,” Strate said. The condominium units were added as part of the revised estimate.
Written by MMA Associate Editor Mitch Evich
