The Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) has established a plan for releasing updated program eligibility information based upon Census Bureau data from the 2016-2020 American Community Survey (ACS). Eligibility requirements for the Bank Enterprise Award Program (BEA Program), Capital Magnet Fund (CMF), Community Development Financial Institutions Program (CDFI Program), Native American CDFI Assistance Program (NACA Program), and New Markets Tax Credit Program (NMTC Program) will be released according to the timetable below. The Small Dollar Loan Program (SDL Program) and CDFI Rapid Recovery Program (CDFI RRP) are not impacted by the transition to updated ACS data.
Currently, eligibility information for the above listed CDFI Fund programs is determined by data collected through the 2011-2015 ACS. The CDFI Fund revises program eligibility criteria to coincide with each subsequent full five-year ACS data release, which is now the 2016-2020 release. However, the CDFI Fund plans to implement a one-year transition period—from the date the updated data is deployed for each program identified below—to allow program applicants and recipients the option to determine eligibility using either 2011-2015 ACS data or 2016-2020 ACS data.[1]
Detailed information regarding usage of ACS data during the transition period will be posted on the program-specific pages on the CDFI Fund website. The CDFI Fund will provide public notification as transition guidance for CDFI Fund programs is published.
- Bank Enterprise Award Program Distressed Community Data: to be released fall 2022 (tentative). The updated BEA Program data can be used beginning on the date the CDFI Fund publishes it. There is a one-year transition period to use historical 2011-2015 ACS data. Information on the prior BEA Program data transition is available on the CDFI Fund website here.
- Capital Magnet Fund: CMF eligibility data is based on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy (CHAS) data, U.S. Census Bureau’s decennial census, and Federal Housing Finance Agency’s Duty to Serve data. The data utilized by CMF is updated on a round-by-round basis. The CDFI Fund will release specific guidance on CMF eligibility data when the fiscal year 2022 application round opens, consistent with past rounds.
- CDFI Program and NACA Program Eligible Markets, Investment Areas and Target Markets: to be released fall 2022 (tentative). The updated CDFI Program and NACA Program Eligible Market, Investment Area and Target Market data can be used beginning on the date the CDFI Fund publishes it. There is a one-year transition period to use historical 2011-2015 ACS data. Information on the prior CDFI Program and NACA Program data transition is available on the CDFI Fund website here.
- New Markets Tax Credit Program Low-Income Community (LIC) Data: to be released spring 2023 (tentative). Updated LIC data can be used starting on the date the CDFI Fund publishes it, with a one-year transition period to use historical 2011-2015 ACS data. At this same time, the CDFI Fund will also update the list of High Migration Rural Tracts. Information on the prior data transition for the NMTC Program is available on the CDFI Fund website here.
- Annual Certification and Data Collect Report (ACR) and New Certification Applications:
New Applicants for CDFI Certification, as well as CDFIs reaffirming their Target Markets for ACRs due for FYs 2022 and 2023 reporting cycles, may continue to validate their Target Markets and Investment Areas using the 2011-2015 ACS data.
However, once the CDFI Fund deploys the updated CDFI Certification Application, further information on transitioning to the 2016-2020 ACS data for the submission of ACRs, and any new CDFI Certification Applications will be provided.
Program specific policies related to the transition to 2016-2020 ACS data and revised eligibility tables will be posted to the research page, as well as to applicable program pages on the CDFI Fund website. Updated CDFI Information Mapping System (CIMS) data reflecting new program eligibility will tentatively be deployed with revised eligibility tables.
For questions related to the ACS transition, contact the CDFI Fund’s Office of Financial Strategies and Research via email at CDFI-FinancialStrategiesandResearch@cdfi.treas.gov, with the subject line “ACS Question.”
[1] Please note, this release only covers updates related to the release of American Community Survey 5-year Estimates data, the data for which encompasses the United States and Puerto Rico. The 2020 release of updated Island Areas Decennial Census information, which contains the 2020 data for American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and the US Virgin Islands, is still under review by the US Census Bureau.