County faces tall task with 2020 Census

Published 6:51 pm Monday, January 22, 2018

BEAUMONT — Preparations are being made for the upcoming 2020 Census. The numbers, however, may change because of Tropical Storm Harvey.

Michael “Shane” Sinegal, Precinct 3 commissioner, said in November an estimated 5,000 Port Arthur residents, maybe more, left the area and have not returned. If Port Arthur’s population falls under 50,000, it may affect federal funding for the city.

At a workshop prior to the regular meeting of the Jefferson County Commissioners Court on Monday, Sinegal said most residents haven’t returned. Some have inquired about buyouts of their homes, an indication they aren’t returning.

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Moreover, there’s no mechanism to locate displaced residents.

“We need a holistic, city and county, approach to find these people,” he said.

Residents with public housing assistance can get transfer vouchers to live elsewhere.

“Maybe they would come back if the apartments open back up. We have a surplus of Section 8 housing in Port Arthur,” Sinegal said.

Fred Jackson, assistant to the county judge, said a workshop was held last week on requirements for the Local Update of Census Addresses Operation. The program would use volunteers to verify addresses in unincorporated county areas.

A decision to participate is needed by the end of January. The work must be completed and sent in at the end of March.

Jackson said he spoke with Kyle Hayes, city manager of Beaumont, and they haven’t made a decision, but Jackson is not optimistic. Jackson said he hasn’t heard from Harvey Robinson, interim city manager for the city of Port Arthur.

Sinegal said he has 10 different answers from the city of Port Arthur and most of the answers have been no.

Bob Dickinson with the South East Texas Regional Planning Commission said Tropical Storm Harvey came at the worst possible time and Jefferson County and Orange County may lose population.

“We need the highest possible count of people because it’s critical we get an accurate addresses listing,” Dickinson said.

Brent Weaver, Precinct 2 commissioner, asked how the program can be accomplished since there are no clear instructions.

Dickinson said there was also a survey completed and sent in from residents in unincorporated areas.

He suggested the county concentrate its limited time and resources on structures built after 2010 and on multifamily structures built and new house trailers added.

Pete Delacruz, also with the SETRPC, said they use geographic technological information to track new structures.

Jackson was curious if Jefferson County could rely on information in the 911 address system.

“A structure can be habitable two years from now and that’s the difficulty,” said County Judge Jeff Branick.

Another concern to Branick and the commissioners was the possibility of creating two full-time positions during a budget year to gather Census information because they doubt volunteers could pull off the job.

Sinegal said even if the county does its part with the Census, the cities may not do theirs and Port Arthur was “hit hard.”

Weaver said the court can rely on the 2015 survey with the updated 911 data.

“It makes more sense to go with the technology and data we have. We also have the Blackboard notification system to use,” Weaver said.