List of Poor Towns Poorly Uses Data

Ron Wilshire

Ron Wilshire

Published January 24, 2018 5:40 am
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CLARION, Pa. (EYT) — A recently released list of the poorest towns in Pennsylvania that included Clarion Township and Clarion Borough may be more the result of a “poor” interpretation of census figures.

The list was first circulated by Pennlive.com, a website of the Harrisburg Patriot-News, using 2016 Census data of per capita income to develop the ranking.

Clarion was not alone and was joined on the list by Indiana, Lock Haven, and Bloomsburg, all home to members of the State System of Higher Education. It turns out the census data includes all students that live on- or off-campus. Since most students have no income when they are attending school, census figures list them as having no income or little income, and that impacts on a municipality’s per capita rate.

Clarion Township is listed as number three in the PennLive report with a population of 4,116, 42 percent living in poverty and 1,728 people living in poverty.  Clarion Borough has a population of 5,276, 36 percent living in poverty and a total of 1,900 people living in poverty.

Most students do not have much of an income to report, so the decision tends to make the income per capita much lower than normal and could make a higher percentage of “poor.” In a smaller community like Clarion Borough or Clarion Township, that can drastically change percentages.

Census figures are also used by HUD and the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development and include all residents in the community, including college students living in any type of structure whether it is on-campus housing or off-campus housing.

According to Clarion Borough Treasurer Todd Colosimo, one indication that the list is using students for the total population is a look at Clarion Borough’s population.

“While the census is only done every 10 years, we receive estimated changes frequently from the government,” said Colosimo.

Colosimo offered an example of the current five-year estimate.

“The current five-year estimate from the Census Bureau from 2011-15 shows, Clarion Borough has 5,298 persons. It also splits it up according to age groups and in the 10-14 group there are 144, for the 15-19 it jumps up to 961, and for the 20-24 category it jumps up to 1,279, and for 25-34 it drops down to 677 and keeps going down in the other age groups.  The 15-19 and 20-24 groups have over 20 percent of the population. The signs are definitely there of them using the college students.”

Years ago when students moved from Campbell Hall, a traditional student dormitory, to Reinhard Villages that also had a side effect of decreasing the borough population and increasing the Clarion Township population.

“It had an immediate impact, and I’m sure it was one of the reasons Clarion Township qualified as an entitled community for the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program,” said Clarion Township Berg Dilly. “I know that’s what pushed us over the top for the 4,000 mark. We have a lot of Clarion University students renting in Clarion Township.”

Colosimo said at the time of the move to Reinhard Villages, Clarion Borough was over the 6,000-population mark.

In addition to the per capita rate, having students in a census can also increase a municipality’s low-moderate income rate. Clarion Borough’s current low-moderate income rate is 67.04 percent.  When projects are done with a CDBG grant the project must serve the entire municipality and not only LMI areas.

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