Joliet will do special census

JOLIET – The city of Joliet will spend nearly $100,000 on a special census, as officials expect to get more than $900,000 in return.

The census will be done this summer on the far West Side and in one subdivision on the East Side.

The city is limiting the census count to the area where most new homes have been built since the last regular census in 2010.

“These are areas that pretty much did not have housing in them,” Deputy City Manager Steve Jones told the City Council this week. “If our numbers are right, we will spend $99,000 and collect between $893,000 and $967,000.”

The cost estimate for the census is $99,705.

Municipalities do special censuses with the expectation that they will get more population-based tax revenue, which is based on census counts.

City staff has counted 566 occupancy permits for new houses since the 2010 census. Of those, 456 were issued in seven census tracks to be counted.

Those areas include a section of the far West Side on both sides of County Line Road and between Black and Caton Farm roads. The census also will count the new Liberty Meadow Estates subdivision on the East Side.

The Census Bureau estimates there are 3.2 residents a household.

Using that number, city staff estimates Joliet could get another $223,000 a year from state distributions of income, use and motor fuel taxes.

Staff estimates that the special census will be certified at least 48 months before the 2020 census is completed, giving Joliet the additional revenue for that period.

Foreclosure impact

The City Council voted, 7-1, Tuesday for the special census, with Larry Hug dissenting.

Hug said he was concerned that the number of new houses will be offset by those houses in foreclosure and vacated since the 2010 census.

Empty houses would offset new ones with people in them, Jones acknowledged. But he noted that the census will not take in all vacant homes in Joliet, since the count is limited to the seven tracks.

Hug, however, said he does not believe the city has a firm grasp on the number of foreclosures in Joliet.

“I don’t think that was looked at closely enough,” Hug said Thursday. “I still see a lot of foreclosures when I drive through my district.”

Hug said he believes the highest concentration of foreclosures also is in the far West Side, “where the new homes were built in the early 2000s.”

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JOLIET NUMBERS FROM 2010 CENSUS

Population: 147,433

Population in 2000: 107,823

Home ownership rate: 73.3 percent

Percentage living in same house at least one year: 87.8 percent

Median value of owner-occupied houses: $171,700

Median household income: $61,744

Percentage below poverty level: 12.1 percent