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Community Development Block Grant Eligibility
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires local municipalities that receive Community Development Block Grant (CDBG or CD) formula Entitlement funds to use the 2011-2015 American Community Survey (ACS) Low and Moderate Income Summary Data (LMISD) data file, released February 14, 2019, to determine where CDBG funds may be used for activities that are available to all the residents in a particular area ("CD area benefit" or "CD-eligible area"). A CD-eligible census tract refers to 2010 census tracts where the area is primarily residential in nature and at least 51.00% of the residents are low- and moderate-income persons as per the LMISD data file. For New York City, a primarily residential area is defined as one where at least 50.00% of the total built floor area is residential. Low- and moderate-income persons are defined as persons living in households with incomes below 80 percent of the area median household income (AMI). (The New York Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area (PMSA)'s AMI was $63,700 for a 4-person family at the release of the 2011-2015 American Community Survey.)
In addition, floor area percentages have been updated with the most recent floor area data (December 2018). Therefore, the previous version of the Census Tract Eligibility data table and maps have been superseded.
On July 1, 2019, the City of New York will begin to use the updated 2010 Census data to determine CD area eligibility for City Fiscal Year 2020 CD-funded activities. Programs supported by CD funds determined by the previous data remain eligible until June 30, 2019.
Please refer to 
HUD Office of Community Planning and Development (CPD) Notice CPD-19-02: Low- and Moderate-Income Summary Data Updates which provides instructions on how to properly calculate area eligibility for a service area comprised of multiple census tracts.
Persons who are interested in determining if their household is eligible for CD-funded programs that assist individual households (CD-household eligibility) should refer to HUD’s household low- and moderate-income limits for the given year.
Any questions regarding Community Development area eligibility should be directed to:
Julie Freeman
New York City Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
255 Greenwich Street, 8th Floor
New York, New York 10007
(212) 788-6130
The attached report, Percent of Persons Who Are Low-/Moderate-Income By Census Tract, is used to determine Census Tract Eligibility for New York City’s Community Development Block Grant-funded programs. The report lists by borough for each census tract:
- the 2010 census tract number;
- total floor area;
- residential floor area;
- percent of residential floor area;
- number of potentially low-/moderate-income persons;
- total number of low-/moderate-income persons;
- percent of low-/moderate-income persons;
- and overall CD eligibility.
The following Borough-based maps show those 2010 census tracts that are considered to be a “CD-eligible census tract”as per the percent of low- and moderate-income persons and the percent of built floor area categorized as residential for the respective census tracts as determined by the City’s Percent of Persons Who Are Low- and Moderate-Income By Census Tract file.
Bronx 2011-2015 Eligibility Map Brooklyn 2011-2015 Eligibility Map Manhattan 2011-2015 Eligibility Map Queens 2011-2015 Eligibility Map Staten Island 2011-2015 Eligibility Map