Detailed Information on Priority Populations
Operationalizing Investment Targets
Investment minimums apply to California Climate Investments as a whole, rather than to individual programs within the California Climate Investments portfolio. To help drive progress towards these targets, CARB, in consultation with administering agencies, develops individual program targets for each fiscal year of funding. To count toward the investment minimums, administering agencies must demonstrate that a project provides direct, meaningful, and assured benefits and meets an important community need according to CARB’s Funding Guidelines.
CARB works with administering agencies to develop criteria for how projects can provide benefits to priority populations and solicits input through a public comment process. The Funding Guidelines also include requirements and guidance for targeting investments to priority populations.
Detailed Definitions
In October 2021, the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) released CalEnviroScreen 4.0, an updated version of the screening tool that CalEPA has historically used to identify disadvantaged communities. Beginning in late 2021, CalEPA began the process of updating its disadvantaged communities designation. The final designation was released in May 2022. In addition, as specified in the Funding Guidelines, CARB has updated the reference year(s) used to identify low-income communities and households in response to CalEPA’s updated disadvantaged community designation.
There may be limited cases where this guidance requires additional clarification for individual programs. In these cases, programs should work directly with CARB to determine applicability.
Disadvantaged communities
State law, as provided by Senate Bill (SB) 535 and amended by Assembly Bill (AB) 1550, directs the Secretary for Environmental Protection at CalEPA to identify “disadvantaged communities.” Identification must be based on geographic, socioeconomic, public health, and environmental hazard criteria. The criteria may include, but are not limited to:
Areas disproportionately affected by environmental pollution and other hazards that can lead to negative public health effects, exposure, or environmental degradation.
Areas with concentrations of people that are of low income, high unemployment, low levels of homeownership, high rent burden, sensitive populations, or low levels of educational attainment.
To meet the statutory mandate, CalEPA uses a tool called CalEnviroScreen to help identify disadvantaged communities for the purpose of priority populations investments. OEHHA developed this screening tool under CalEPA’s guidance to assess areas that are disproportionately affected by multiple types of pollution and areas with vulnerable populations.
CalEnviroScreen includes numerous indicators in two broad categories: “Pollution Burden,” which includes exposures and environmental effects; and “Population Characteristics,” which includes sensitive populations and socioeconomic factors. The indicator scores are combined for each census tract to determine an overall CalEnviroScreen score. The higher the score, the higher the level of cumulative burden according to these indicators. Explore indicators under Data and Additional Materials on the CalEnviroScreen webpage.
In October 2021, OEHHA released CalEnviroScreen version 4.0 based on 21 indicators that were evaluated at the census tract scale. In May 2022, using CalEnviroScreen 4.0 and the American Indian Areas Related National Geodatabase, CalEPA identified the list of disadvantaged community census tracts and land areas for the purpose of implementing California Climate Investments under SB 535 and AB 1550. Under the new designation, the identified disadvantaged communities include:
The census tracts with the highest 25 percent of overall scores in the State based on CalEnviroScreen 4.0;
Census tracts lacking overall scores in CalEnviroScreen 4.0 due to data gaps but receiving the highest five percent of scores on a composite score measuring cumulative pollution burden;
Census tracts identified in the 2017 SB 535 disadvantaged communities designation as disadvantaged, regardless of their scores in CalEnviroScreen 4.0; and
Lands under the control of federally recognized tribes.
CalEPA is providing for a consultation-based process with any interested federally recognized tribe to identify land under its control that is not accounted for in the American Indian Areas Related National Geodatabase. Administering agencies receiving questions from federally recognized tribes on the potential inclusion of new areas in the designation of disadvantaged communities should direct tribes to the CalEPA office of the Deputy Secretary for Environmental Justice, Tribal Affairs, and Border Relations via the Tribal Affairs contact. CARB will provide guidance to administering agencies on claiming priority population benefits for any lands that CalEPA adds to the disadvantaged communities designation based on consultation with federally recognized tribes.
Please note that CalEnviroScreen is a screening tool that informs the identification of disadvantaged communities based on currently available data. As community characteristics change over time and the tool is updated, CalEPA will periodically review and update its SB 535 designation of disadvantaged communities.
As CalEPA updates the list of census tracts identified as disadvantaged communities over time, CARB will issue supplemental guidance to the Funding Guidelines to provide direction to agencies on the applicability of new designations.
Low-income communities
AB 1550 defines low-income communities as those census tracts with: 1) median household incomes at or below 80 percent of the statewide median income, or 2) median household incomes at or below the threshold designated as low‑income by Department of Housing and Community Development’s State Income Limits (HCD State Income Limits).[1] Census tracts that satisfy either of these definitions were identified as “low-income” for the purpose of AB 1550 implementation.
To identify the low-income census tracts using the statewide median household income, the median household income of each census tract was determined from the 2015-2019 American Community Survey (ACS) and compared against the statewide median household income determined by the same survey, which was $75,235. Any census tract with a median household income at or below 80 percent of $ 75,235 (i.e.,$ 60,188) was identified as low-income.
Additional census tracts were identified based on the threshold designated as low-income by HCD State Income Limits. The HCD State Income Limits vary by household size for each county and provide income thresholds for “Acutely Low,” “Extremely Low,” “Very Low,” “Low,” “Median,” and “Moderate” income categories. AB 1550 refers to the “Low” income thresholds within the HCD State Income Limits. This was determined as follows:
The county-level “low-income” limit from the HCD State Income Limits was used to define “low-income” at the census tract level using the average household size(rounding to the nearest whole number) for each census tract, using the data from the 2015-2019 ACS.
Next, the average household size of each census tract was used to determine which “low-income” limit to apply from HCD’s State Income Limits for the appropriate county.
Additionally, the median household income for each census tract was determined from the ACS and was compared to the appropriate HCD low-income limit. If the median household income for a given census tract was equal to or less than the appropriate HCD low-income limit, then the census tract was defined as “low-income” for the purposes of AB 1550.
For example, in Sacramento County, any census tract with an average household size of two, and a median income less than $58,000, is designated as low-income, while for census tracts with an average household size of three the low-income threshold becomes $65,250.
Low-income households
AB 1550 defines low-income households as those with: 1) a household income at or below 80 percent of the statewide median income, or 2) a household income at or below the threshold designated as low-income by HCD State Income Limits.[2]
References
[1] Health and Safety Code section 39713(d), citing HCD State Income Limits, adopted pursuant to the Health and Safety Code Section 50093.