CDFI (Community Development Financial Institutions) Fund Capital Magnet Fund – Data Layer

Description:

The Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund, a division of the US Department of the Treasury, provides funding to CDFIs and qualified non-profit housing organizations through the Capital Magnet Fund. Areas of Economic Distress and Rural Areas are among the selection criteria used to determine eligibility. Additionally, Areas of High Housing Need and Metropolitan Areas were among the past selection criteria used to determine eligibility and are also available on PolicyMap.

The CDFI Fund considers a tract to be an Area of Economic Distress in 2024 if it meets at least one of the following criteria: (i) At least 20% of Very-Low Income households spend more than half of their income on housing; or (ii) The tract is a Low-Income Housing Tax Credit qualified census tract; or (iv) Greater than 20 percent of households have incomes below the poverty rate with a rental vacancy rate of at least 10 percent; or (iv) Greater than 20 percent of households have incomes below the poverty rate with a homeownership vacancy rate of at least 10 percent; or (v) Tract is an underserved rural area as defined in the CMF Interim Rule.

FHFA’s Duty to Serve regulation defines “rural area” as: (i) A census tract outside of a metropolitan statistical area, as designated by the Office of Management and Budget; or (ii) A census tract in a metropolitan statistical area, as designated by the OMB, that is: (A) Outside of the MSA’s Urbanized Areas as designated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Rural-Urban Commuting Area Code #1, and outside of tracts with a housing density of over 64 housing units per square mile for USDA’s RUCA Code #2.

FHFA’s Duty to Serve regulation defines “high opportunity areas” as: (1) tracts designated by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as a “Difficult Development Area” (DDA) during any year covered by an Enterprise’s Underserved Markets Plan or in the year before a Plan’s effective date, whose poverty rate falls below 10% (for metropolitan areas) or 15% (for non-metropolitan areas). Or (2) an area designated by a state or local Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP) as a high opportunity area whose poverty falls below 10% (for metropolitan areas) or 15% (for non-metropolitan areas). High opportunity areas are used to determine eligibility for extra credit under Duty to Serve.

Low-Income Area means a census tract in which the median income does not exceed 80 percent of the median income for the area in which such census tract or block numbering area is located. For a census tract or block numbering area located within a Metropolitan Area, the median family income shall be at or below 80 percent of the Metropolitan Area median family income or the national Metropolitan Area median family income, whichever is greater. In the case of a census tract located outside of a Metropolitan Area, the median family income shall be at or below 80 percent of the statewide Non-Metropolitan Area median family income or the national Non-Metropolitan Area median family income, whichever is greater.

For more information about the Capital Magnet Fund data, see the CDFI Fund’s website here.