We use ratio of income to poverty. You can define low-income as the poverty line or some percentage of the poverty line. We use 150%. Jackie Eastwood Transportation Planner La Crosse Area Planning Committee 212 6th St N, Room 1200 La Crosse Wi 54601 608.785.6141 or 608.792.0520 (cell) From: Weinberger Penelope <pweinberger(a)aashto.org> Sent: Wednesday, January 29, 2020 12:58 PM To: ctpp-news(a)chrispy.net Subject: [CTPP] FW: Question Regarding Mapping Low Income Population by Census Tract Hey CTPPers, I received this query, I welcome your thoughts. We are currently looking at environmental justice factors on Urban Arterials in the Denver Metro area, and I was wondering if you might have any insights into mapping low income population by census tract. The only data I have been able to find includes low and moderate income (from HUD), and I am having trouble even finding that data at the tract level. Do you know of a good data source for this? Any help or insights would be greatly appreciated. PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL This e-mail and attachments are intended for the addressed recipient only. If you are not the correct recipient please notify the sender of the delivery error and delete this message. Improper disclosure, copying, distribution, retransmission, or use of information from this e-mail is Prohibited, and may result in liability and damages for misuse of this information.

It depends on how you define low income, but I would assume Federal Poverty level would be the best option here. The ACS 5-year estimates have data for poverty by tract – Table B17001 and Table C17002 (type the table number into the search at Http://data.census.gov), Table C17002 will let you get various levels above and below the federal poverty level. You can also get household income ranges from table B19001. 2018 5-year is the most recent ACS data there. DrCOG could be another good resource for help with acquiring Census data https://data.drcog.org/ ============== Jami Dennis, GISP From: Weinberger Penelope <pweinberger(a)aashto.org> Sent: Wednesday, January 29, 2020 10:58 AM To: ctpp-news(a)chrispy.net Subject: [CTPP] FW: Question Regarding Mapping Low Income Population by Census Tract Hey CTPPers, I received this query, I welcome your thoughts. We are currently looking at environmental justice factors on Urban Arterials in the Denver Metro area, and I was wondering if you might have any insights into mapping low income population by census tract. The only data I have been able to find includes low and moderate income (from HUD), and I am having trouble even finding that data at the tract level. Do you know of a good data source for this? Any help or insights would be greatly appreciated.

Penelope- Transit agencies have to perform what is called Title 6 analysis to show that they do not discriminate by race or income. We usually rely on HUD data which defines low income based on a combination of income and the size of the household. So the problem is that you have to look at identifying household size by income and do that for up to 7 categories. That is how low income is defined. The other issue is that these are changed based on inflation so that the income ranges change every year I think, So you have to sort how many households are below a certain income level by size of household and add them together. The income ranges typically do not match census income ranges also. For simplicity, we generally pick an income level that covers the majority of household sizes, typically 4 or 5 persons. For recent examples, we used a Household Income of $25,000 or less as a definition of low income. Granted somewhat simple, but it can narrow the process and comports with Census income ranges. Tom Marchwinski Director, Market Research and Fare Policy Metro-North Railroad From: Weinberger Penelope [mailto:pweinberger(a)aashto.org] Sent: Wednesday, January 29, 2020 1:58 PM To: ctpp-news(a)chrispy.net Subject: [CTPP] FW: Question Regarding Mapping Low Income Population by Census Tract Hey CTPPers, I received this query, I welcome your thoughts. We are currently looking at environmental justice factors on Urban Arterials in the Denver Metro area, and I was wondering if you might have any insights into mapping low income population by census tract. The only data I have been able to find includes low and moderate income (from HUD), and I am having trouble even finding that data at the tract level. Do you know of a good data source for this? Any help or insights would be greatly appreciated.

Several people have already said some of this – but I spent a few minutes synthesizing it all into a summary. So here it is: Low-income, moderate-income, etc., are pegged to a multiple of Area Median Income for any housing or HUD program. Low-income, moderate-income, etc., could instead be pegged to a multiple of the poverty line for HHS, US DOT, and most other programs. If one is using the multiples of Area Median Income: * Importantly, every metro area has its own distinct level of Area Median Income, determined by analysts at HUD. * Low-income (generally) means households with a household income <= 50% of AMI. Moderate-income (generally) means income 51-80% of AMI. * * I say “generally” because there are some minor and nuanced exceptions when HUD sets the metro-specific affordability cut-offs. * The low- and moderate-income bands have a sliding scale varying with household size. * Data: HUD, working with Census, publishes “CHAS” estimates of households (and housing units) in each income band (or affordability band). www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/cp.html<http://www.huduser.gov/portal/da… Geographic units: counties, county subdivisions (aka MCDs), places, and tracts. * “CHAS” estimates do not include population counts. It would be possible to join the CHAS household estimates with ACS average household sizes, then calculate “pop in households” – but if population is the metric you prefer, it’s easier to instead use ACS tables concerning income bands (C17002, B17024, B17026) – see below. If one is using the multiples of the poverty line * The poverty schedule is the same nationwide; does not vary by metro or state. * In the Mpls-St Paul metro area*, low-income means people or families with a family income <= 185% of the poverty line. Moderate-income means income 186% to 300% of the poverty line. * * Your metro area might set the thresholds differently. We have set the thresholds as we have because, for the Mpls-St Paul metro 300% of poverty is roughly equivalent to 80% of AMI (moderate-income); 185% of poverty is roughly 50% of AMI (low-income); and 100% of poverty line (officially poor) is roughly 30% of AMI (extremely low-income) * The poverty line has a sliding scale varying with family size. So, in Census’s American Community Survey, every family and every person case is classified to an income band using the sliding scale. * Data: ACS tables (C17002, B17024, B17026) present population in each income band. Hope that helps. [cid:image001.png(a)01D5D6BB.62687920] Todd Graham Principal Forecaster | Metropolitan Council | Regional Policy and Research todd.graham(a)metc.state.mn.us Phone 651.602.1322 | Fax 651.602.1674 390 North Robert Street | St. Paul, MN 55101 | metrocouncil.org/data<http://www.metrocouncil.org/data> [ConWUs][FaceBook_32x32]<http://www.facebook.com/MetropolitanCouncil>[… [EmailSU] <https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/MNORGMETC/subscribers/new?preferences=true> From: Weinberger Penelope <pweinberger(a)aashto.org> Sent: Wednesday, January 29, 2020 12:58 PM To: ctpp-news(a)chrispy.net Subject: [CTPP] FW: Question Regarding Mapping Low Income Population by Census Tract Hey CTPPers, I received this query, I welcome your thoughts. We are currently looking at environmental justice factors on Urban Arterials in the Denver Metro area, and I was wondering if you might have any insights into mapping low income population by census tract. The only data I have been able to find includes low and moderate income (from HUD), and I am having trouble even finding that data at the tract level. Do you know of a good data source for this? Any help or insights would be greatly appreciated.