Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Community Development topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Council authorizes random LMI household survey to seek ICDBG eligibility
Summary
Moscow City Council authorized staff on Sept. 2 to conduct a randomized low‑to‑moderate‑income household survey designed to determine whether the city meets the 51% threshold for Idaho Community Development Block Grant area‑wide eligibility.
Moscow City Council on Sept. 2 authorized staff to proceed with a randomized low‑to‑moderate‑income (LMI) household survey intended to determine whether the city meets the 51% LMI threshold used by the Idaho Department of Commerce for area‑wide ICDBG eligibility.
Grants staff explained the methodology the department requires: the city will draw a randomized sample of addresses (the working mailing list contains 12,186 residential addresses excluding PO boxes), mail a survey packet with a mayoral cover letter and unique ID, provide a postage‑paid return envelope, and offer an online response by QR code or telephone assistance. The Department of Commerce allows a 75‑day survey window and requires a minimum of 279 valid responses based on the city’s sample size and a 5% confidence interval; the staff plan includes mailing 372 initial surveys and a pool of up to 500 addresses to be used if replacements are needed.
Staff said they would run a comprehensive outreach program including a press release, city website materials, an all‑city email, social media, tabling at the farmers market, utility bill insert, flyers on transit, campus outreach with the University of Idaho and door‑to‑door follow up by teams of two if mail/online/phone responses fall short of the needed response rate. Staff estimated an initial mail/online/phone return of about 30% and planned to complete door‑to‑door interviews for the remainder, scheduling roughly 20 working days for in‑person follow‑up and some evening and weekend time.
The survey instrument is simple: respondents indicate household size and whether gross household income falls above or below the dollar threshold for that household size. Staff said responses are confidential; unique IDs decouple responses from names. If the final validated survey shows 51% or greater LMI households, the city will qualify for area‑wide ICDBG eligibility for five years regardless of subsequent American Community Survey updates. The council approved staff proceeding with the randomized survey and public outreach.
