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 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.

Todd Graham Principal Forecaster  |  Metropolitan Council   |  Regional Policy and Research todd.graham@metc.state.mn.us Phone 651.602.1322  |  Fax 651.602.1674 390 North Robert Street  |  St. Paul, MN 55101  |  metrocouncil.org/data

From: Weinberger Penelope <pweinberger@aashto.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 29, 2020 12:58 PM
To: ctpp-news@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.