Download report: "7 Things to Do to Reduce the
Likelihood of Undercount in Census 2020"How It Works: Community-Based Address Canvassing
If you are a nonprofit or government agency and would like to implement LUCA in your community, follow these steps:
1. Get City or County Government’s Agreement to Cooperate
Nonprofits need to submit suggestions of unconventional addresses to the local city or county. Local cities and counties can then send the addresses to the Census Bureau.
Local governments must agree to
Accept submissions of unconventional addresses by nonprofits
Not use the addresses for housing inspection
2. Get Funding
Cities, counties, and foundations can fund locally based nonprofits working in low-income, minority, and immigrant neighborhoods to conduct address canvassing
The State of California is providing $7 million in reimbursement to cities and counties to improve local addresses. Local governments can get reimbursement for LUCA efforts, including community nonprofit grants, from the California Department of Finance.
Local governments can
Provide streamlined small grants process to distribute $10K-25K grants
Partner with local foundations to co-fund nonprofits
Foundations can
Pool funding of local family foundations and the local community foundation
Provide streamlined grants process to distribute small grants of $10K-25K
Success Story
A two-month address canvassing initiative by the California Rural Legal Assistance resulted in finding 3,000 missing unconventional addresses, which were then added to the Census Bureau’s address file
3. Fund Organizations with Outreach Experience
Select nonprofits with street-level knowledge of neighborhoods, existing outreach programs, and local staff with cultural and language skills—advocacy, voter registration, legal services, and youth program counselors are ideal.
4. Identify Target Areas
Determine which specific blocks are likely to have unconventional housing
Use local nonprofit knowledge and available Census undercount maps
Need more information on target areas in your region?
Sample target maps for your city or county may be available. Please
Contact Us.
5. Nonprofits Get Training and Supervision
One day of classroom training, especially on privacy protection
One day of in-field supervised canvassing work/practice
Supervision to ensure coverage of target blocks and quality of data collected
6. Conduct In-Field Canvassing & Submit Addresses by Mobile Phone
Focus on specific high-priority blocks
Address canvassers visually look for unconventional housing
Address canvassers fill out three quick answers via text messaging on their phone, and submit the info to a secure database
The city/county will receive the information submitted and will compile alongside any other updates they have and submit it to the U.S. Census Bureau
