CDFI (Community Development Financial Institutions) Fund and PolicyMap

Description:

The Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund, a division of the US Department of the Treasury, administers the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC). PolicyMap has performed calculations on various data sources in order to map eligibility and threshold requirements established by the CDFI Fund for Part II (Community Impact) of the NMTC Allocation Application. The NMTC Allocation Application data on PolicyMap is available as follows.

Note that the latest eligibility criteria use Census American Community Survey (ACS) 2016-2020 estimates.

CDFI Fund New Markets Tax Credit NMTC Eligibility
NMTC Eligible Census tracts include those that have either (1) Median Family Income at or below 80% of Area Median Income (AMI) in the period of 2016-2020 or (2) Poverty Rate of 20% or greater in the period of 2016-2020. PolicyMap provides a map of those eligible Census tracts (“Eligible Tracts”), as well as the underlying data used to create that map in the (“Eligibility Criteria”). PolicyMap also provides the underlying data without the NMTC thresholds (“Tract Family Income as % of AMI” and “Poverty”).

According to the NMTC application, an applicant generally scores more favorably that serves tracts with “Severe Distress”, “Deep Distress”, “High Migration Rural County”, or in non-metropolitan counties, or qualifies for two or more other criteria.

Severe Distress, Deep Distress, High Migration Rural County, and Non-Metropolitan
Meeting the NMTC Severe Distress, Deep Distress, High Migration Rural County, or Non-Metropolitan criteria is based on whether or not a given Census tract meets basic NMTC Eligibility, plus one of the following factors:

Severe Distress: having a median family income at or below 60% of AMI in the period of 2016-2020; having a poverty rate at or above 30% in the period of 2016-2020; having an unemployment rate of at least 1.5 times the national unemployment rate in the period of 2016-2020;

Deep Distress: having a median family income at or below 40% of AMI in the period of 2016-2020; having a poverty rate at or above 40% in the period of 2016-2020; having an unemployment rate of at least 2.5 times the national unemployment rate in the period of 2016-2020;

High Migration Rural County: having median family income at or below 85 percent of the applicable AMI in the period of 2016-2020; being in any county during the 20-year period ending with the year in which the most recent census was conducted, with a net out-migration of inhabitants from the county of at least 10 percent of the population of the county at the beginning of such period; high migration rural counties qualify as low-income communities;

Non-Metropolitan: being in a county that is not part of a metropolitan statistical area.

*The median family income threshold for NMTC, more specifically, is: Census tracts with, if located within a non-Metropolitan Area, median family income at or below 60% of statewide median family income or, if located within a Metropolitan Area, median family income at or below 60% of the greater of the statewide median family income or the Metropolitan Area median family income.

Other Criteria for NMTC:
Other criteria can include two of the following: meeting NMTC Heavy Distress requirements; being located within: an SBA Designated HUB Zone, a Medically Underserved Area (MUA), a Census tract within which a Brownfield is located, a HOPE VI Redevelopment Area, a Federal Native Area, an Appalachian Regional Commission or Delta Regional Authority Area, a Colonias Area, a State or Local Economic Zone (such as TIF or KOZ), a FEMA Disaster Area, or a ERS/USDA Food Desert. Please note that the data on PolicyMap do not take into account the following, due to unavailability of data: HOPE VI Redevelopment Areas, Federal Native Areas, Colonias Areas, State or Local Economic Zones, and FEMA Disaster Areas. Included in this submenu are the data for each of the available factors that constitute the Secondary Criteria for NMTC Severely Distressed.

The data used for the NMTC Eligibility maps include numerous sources, listed below.

Data for the 2018 Application:

• Median Family Income: Census ACS 2016-2020
• Area Median Income: Census ACS 2016-2020
• Poverty Rate: Census ACS 2016-2020
• Unemployment Rate: Census ACS 2016-2020
• SBA HUBZones: Small Business Administration HUBZones
• Medically Underserved Areas: US Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration Shortage Areas
• Delta Regional Authority Distressed Counties: Delta Regional Authority Distressed List (https://dra.gov/map-room/)
• Appalachian Regional Commission: County Economic Status and Distressed Areas in Appalachia (http://www.arc.gov/appalachian_region/CountyEconomicStatusandDistressedAreasinAppalachia.asp)
• Brownfield locations: EPA Brownfields
• ERS/USDA Food Deserts: ERS, USDA

Because any of these data sources may have been updated since the production of these calculations, users should verify eligibility directly with the CDFI Fund. Information in PolicyMap does not include HOPE VI Redevelopment Areas, Federal Native Areas, Colonias Areas, or State or Local Economic Zones. FEMA Disaster Areas are accessible under Federal Guidelines.

NMTC Eligibility and Qualified Opportunity Zones
A joint dataset that includes both NMTC eligibility and designated Qualified Opportunity Zones. Census tracts labeled as “Designated OZ” are census tracts that have been nominated and designated as a Qualified Opportunity Zone (QOZ), according to the CDFI Fund and census tracts labeled as “NMTC Eligible” are census tracts that meet the CDFI Fund’s New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) eligibility for CY 2018. For more information see the directory entry for Qualified Opportunity Zones.