Aurora’s special census, which was originally planned for early 2025 but has faced delay after delay, is now set to start next month.
The effort, requested by Aurora after officials felt the city was undercounted in the 2020 decennial census, will be focused only around certain areas that have been recently developed. Starting in late July, residents in these areas should begin to receive letters in the mail directing them to respond to the census online, city officials announced this week.
To make sure everyone is counted, door-to-door counting will begin around early September. Federal census workers are only expected to visit the homes of those who didn’t respond online, so officials said that those looking to avoid a knock on the door should read the letter they are mailed and follow the instructions before the online response period ends in late August.
City officials stressed that the letters residents will receive in the mail should not be thrown away — they have special codes on them that are required to be able to respond online. Once those codes have been used to access the census’ online portal, then the letters can be shredded, officials said.
The announcement was made by Aurora Chief of Staff Shannon Cameron at the City Council’s Committee of the Whole meeting on Tuesday evening. During her presentation, she urged residents to respond to the census online rather than wait for workers to come to your door, which will save the city money.
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At the heart of Aurora’s push for a special census has been the revenue that city officials believe Aurora is missing out on because of a perceived undercount in the 2020 decennial census, which showed the city had a population of around 180,000 — down from 197,000 in 2010.
The undercount is costing the city about $4.3 million each year, according to Cameron’s presentation on Tuesday. The city won’t be getting lost funds from past years’ back, but going forward, some of that gap could be closed, she said.
Plus, census data is used to make decisions around economic development and infrastructure, Cameron said. It also impacts local nonprofits, she said, because they use census data for things like applying for grants.
Aurora Mayor John Laesch told The Beacon-News that the effort will allow the city to “partially correct the record.”
He’s optimistic about the effort, Laesch said. But he’s also still worried about the “heavy presence” of federal immigration enforcement agents in the state, he said, and he hopes it doesn’t impact the special census effort.
In the past, Aurora officials have delayed the special census, in part, because of feedback from local organizations that worked to inform people not to open their doors or speak to anyone working for the federal government, given fears over the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration.
The data collected through the special census is legally protected, Cameron said at Tuesday’s meeting. It is for statistical use only, she said, and there won’t be a question about citizenship.
“This is a safe thing for our public to do,” Cameron said.
The sections of town expected to be part of the special census area — so where residents are being asked to respond to the census — are primarily those that have seen new residential development since 2020.
A map of the special census area, along with a lookup tool residents can use to see if they live within the area, can be found at: yourvoice.aurora.il.us/specialcensus
The first letter to residents in the designated areas is set to go out on July 23. Three more letters will follow: one on July 29, another on Aug. 5 and the last on Aug. 14, according to Cameron’s presentation.
The internet self-response period will end Aug. 24. In the following weeks, federal census workers will be visiting the homes of those that didn’t respond online to get their counts.
The special census will then hopefully wrap up in November, Cameron said. If the federal government hasn’t used all the money Aurora paid for the special census, she said, the city could then get some of it back.
In 2024, the Aurora City Council agreed to pay the U.S. Census Bureau $1 million for the special census. It was originally scheduled to start in early February 2025, but was delayed multiple times.
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First, the federal government postponed the special census just one day before Aurora was set to hold its kick-off event. Then, in June, Aurora itself delayed the recount over concerns it would further undercount city residents, leading to even less state and federal funding.
Laesch said later in the year that the city would be submitting for a partial census recount looking just at new construction, rather than trying to recount areas officials believed were previously undercounted.
In March, the Census Bureau began hiring for the special census, and the city again began to gear up for the push. But Laesch said during his State of the City Address in April that the federal government had again paused the special census.
The jobs were posted through the month of March, then were taken down on April 1 because of the partial federal government shutdown, but were put back up on April 30.
The federal government is currently hiring for the special census. Those looking to apply online can go to www.aurora.il.us/SpecialCensusJobs
Aurora is hosting job fairs to help people apply for those jobs, according to Cameron’s presentation.
This Saturday, a job fair will be hosted at the Aurora Public Works facility, 2185 Liberty St., from 9 a.m. to noon. Further job fairs will be held at the downtown Santori Library from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on June 15, June 25 and July 1.