CENSUS NEEDS HELP CHECKING ADDRESS.

Byline: Patricia Farrell Aidem and Don Holland Daily News Staff Writers

The U.S. Census is recruiting 90 workers to walk block-by-block in the Santa Clarita Valley to confirm addresses for next year's national population count.

``Listers'' - workers who confirm and correct lists of addresses - will be paid $11.75 an hour, plus 31 cents a mile, and get in shape at the same time. The job will take at least 30 hours a week and run three to five weeks. Workers can set their own hours.

The listers also will be required to knock on every third door to check if the residents or their neighbors have any additional housing units on the property, such as guest houses or granny flats, to ensure those people are counted in the census, Census Manager Steve Alnwick said Tuesday. Any such information is confidential.

Although Census 2000, the latest in a national head count that happens every decade, is still a year away, census officials need to confirm maps and lists of addresses that will be used in next year's mail-in census questionnaire.

``Our address list is about 10 years old,'' Alnwick said. ``We've worked with the Postal Service to correct it, but there's always new housing out there. Maybe there's some housing that's not on either list. We really want to make sure it's up-to-date, 100 percent correct.''

The constitutionally mandated tally is more than an exercise in bureaucratic bean counting. It influences everything from representation in Congress to school funding.

``We are recruiting people to work within their own neighborhoods,'' said John Reeder, Los Angeles regional director of the census. ``Our goal is to hire local people who are committed to a successful count in their communities.''

The crew will be hired in late March and trained starting April 7. Next year, more temporary workers will be hired to follow up on the census questionnaires.

The census is the largest peacetime project performed by the federal government. More than 400,000 people will be hired nationwide during the next 16 months.

For information on jobs and testing sites, call the bureau's recruiting office toll free at [phone].