In February 2009, the U.S. Census Bureau produced a Job - Aid for use by 2010 Census Address Canvassing listers to improve their ability to locate “Hard - to - Find Units in Small Multi - Unit Buildings.” This Job - Aid was created with input from internal stakeholders such as Field Division , Decennial Statistical Studies Division , and Decennial Management Division , as well as external stakeholders such as the Director of the Population Division at the Department of City Planning in New York City. Special procedures were provided in the Job - Aid, also known as Form D - 461.1, to meet the needs of areas recognized to contain a higher than average density of small multi - unit structures. The Job - Aid was available to all Regional Census Centers, and the regional management decided which areas would use the Job - Aid in the 2010 Address Canvassing operation.

Decennial Statistical Studies Division conducted this evaluation as part of the 2010 Census Program for Evaluations and Experiments to judge the effectiveness of the Job - Aid at improving address list updating for small multi - unit structures. This was accomplished through an address listing activity occurring March through May 2010.

The evaluation listing operation consisted of two separate, non-overlapping waves of Demographic Area Address Listing field work in the same areas. Field Representatives for both waves of this operation had no prior experience conducting this listing, and attended separate training sessions in advance. Field Representatives in Wave 1 underwent standard Demographic Area Address Listing training, but no Job-Aid training and did not use the Job-Aid in the field. Field Representatives in Wave 2 underwent the same training, plus Job-Aid training and used the Job-Aid in the field, canvassing the same areas covered in Wave 1.

For the evaluation listing operation, Decennial Statistical Studies Division selected a sample of 10,486 housing units in 194 blocks (Census 2000 tabulation blocks) from four boroughs of New York City, NY and Cook County, IL (Chicago). Three-fourths of these blocks were identified as “High Unrecognized Designation” blocks based on 2008 Statistical Administrative Records System data and were believed to be particularly problematic areas for listing at small multi-unit structures.

To answer the two research questions, the 2010 Census Program for Evaluations and Experiments Evaluation of Small Multi-Unit Structures report presents: differences between the results of each wave of the evaluation listing, gross and net coverage calculations for each wave to the 2010 Census Unedited File, and Field Representative assessments of the impact of the Job-Aid on their ability to conduct an accurate listing.