RE: [CTPP] Census Vacant Structure Determination

I'm going to respectfully disagree re: HUD User's USPS Occupancy/Vacancy rates. Those occupancy/vacancy rates from HUD User are really wacky. It was a great idea to leverage the postal service - but it's not the mail-carrier's primary mission or duty, so there's very uneven and inconsistent record-keeping (lots of "status undetermined" records). And where status is determined I think the carriers' record-keeping may be biased toward false positives (erroneously high occupancy rates)... perhaps based on the simple fact that junk mail never stops coming? ________________________ Todd Graham Principal Forecaster and Project Manager Metropolitan Council 390 Robert Street North Saint Paul, MN 55101 ph: 651/602-1322 email: todd.graham@metc.state.mn.us<mailto:todd.graham@metc.state.mn.us> in: www.linkedin.com/in/toddgraham web: http://www.metrocouncil.org/data/ ________________________ From: ctpp-news-bounces(a)chrispy.net [mailto:ctpp-news-bounces@chrispy.net] On Behalf Of Mara Kaminowitz Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2011 11:33 AM To: ctpp-news(a)chrispy.net Subject: RE: [CTPP] Census Vacant Structure Determination The HUD/USPS dataset may also be of use. The program is on hold but data is available up to Sept. 2010. http://www.huduser.org/portal/datasets/usps.html I think it goes down to the tract level, and looks at vacancy in terms of whether or not they have been collecting their mail. Mara ________________________________ From: Patty Becker [mailto:pbecker@umich.edu] Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2011 12:00 PM To: ctpp-news(a)chrispy.net Subject: Re: [CTPP] Census Vacant Structure Determination The problem is that vacancy status is determined, in the end game, by the enumerator who goes out there and looks at the building/unit. Some units that are really occupied will be declared vacant because the occupants, who may be squatters or illegal immigrants, are hiding from the census. Sometimes there's a fine line between a vacant unit and one which should be taken out of the stock as unlivable. I have the general impression that in 2010 the tendency here was toward vacant, whereas in 2000 and 1990 the tendency was toward removing it from the stock. I doubt that there's any way to prove this one way or the other. Adam - does your ordinance also cover vacant apartments in multi-unit buildings? Bottom line - the census is not clearly definitive on this point. Its mission is to count people, not vacant units. Patty Becker At 09:41 AM 4/26/2011, you wrote: Content-class: urn:content-classes:message Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="----_=_NextPart_001_01CC0417.95B2731C" Hello everyone. I am in need of information regarding how the Census Bureau determines the status of vacant structures. Our city has a vacant structure ordinance in place. This ordinance dictates that property owners register their buildings with the city planning department. How does the Census determine which structures are vacant? Thanks for the help. Adam Aull MPO Director/GIS Manager Danville Area Transportation Study 17 West Main Street, Danville, IL 61832 T: 217 - 431 - 2325 F: 217 - 431 - 2237 E: aaull@cityofdanville.org<mailto:aaull@cityofdanville.org> _______________________________________________ ctpp-news mailing list ctpp-news(a)chrispy.net http://www.chrispy.net/mailman/listinfo/ctpp-news ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patricia C. (Patty) Becker 248/354-6520 APB Associates/SEMCC FAX 248/354-6645 28300 Franklin Road Home 248/355-2428 Southfield, MI 48034 pbecker(a)umich.edu