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@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.