Effective as of July 1st, 2014 grantees using LMISD to qualify area benefit activities shall use the updated LMISD based upon the American Community Survey 5-Year 2006-2010 Low and Moderate Income Summary Data.
The Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program requires that each CDBG funded activity must either principally benefit low- and moderate-income persons, aid in the prevention or elimination of slums or blight, or meet a community development need having a particular urgency because existing conditions pose a serious and immediate threat to the health or welfare of the community and other financial resources are not available to meet that need. With respect to activities that principally benefit low- and moderate-income persons, at least 51 percent of the activity's beneficiaries must be low and moderate income. For CDBG, a person is considered to be of low income only if he or she is a member of a family whose income would qualify as "very low income" under the Section 8 Housing Assistance Payments program. Unrelated individuals are considered as one-person families for this purpose. Generally, these Section 8 limits are based on 50% of area median. Similarly, CDBG moderate income relies on Section 8 "lower income" limits, which are generally tied to 80% of area median.
Estimates have been prepared at the Census Bureau's Geographic Summary Level "090": State-County-County Subdivision-Place/Remainder-Census Tract-Urban/Rural-Block Group. Estimates prepared at this level may be totaled to the city, town, county and other higher-level geographic areas. Each block group record has an identification section containing Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) codes and names for the state, county, city/township, and metropolitan area.
The statistical information used in the calculation of the estimates comes from three tables in Summary File (SF) 3: P9—Household Type (Including Living Alone) by Relationship; P76—Family Income in 1999; and P79—Non-family Household Income in 1999. These data are used with Income Limits for Metropolitan Areas and for Non Metropolitan Counties prepared by the Department's Office of Policy Development and Research to calculate the Low to Moderate Income data. The income limits (PDF | Excel) used are not the same as the ones published several years ago for 1999 incomes. Those income limits were extrapolated from the 1990 census. The income limits table used for the estimates has been recalculated, or "benchmarked," using the income data in census 2000. The income limits used for these calculations are published on this web page along with the Low Mod data. Estimates are calculated at three income levels: Moderate Income (80 percent) level, Low Income (50 percent), and Extremely Low Income (30 percent) level. Estimates are calculated for (1) the number of family households below each income level; (2) the number of non-family households below each income level; (3) persons in family households below each income level; (4) persons in non-family households below each income level; (5) total households below each income level; and (6) total persons in households below each income level.
Questions about the calculation of the estimates may be directed to Formula Help Desk.
Questions about the use of the data should be directed to the staff of the CPD Field Office
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FY2013 Participations |
FY2014 Participations |
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Low and Moderate Income Summary Data Dictionary
Low and Moderate Income Data Set Frequently Asked Questions
Census Data by State
View Census data for each state.
National Data Set
This 14.9 MB file contains all 394,457 split block groups' LMISD in database format
Low/Mod Exception Grantees
CDBG law authorizes an exception criterion in order for some grantees to be able to undertake area benefit activities.
Overall Low/Mod Percentages
View overall low/mod percentages for all grantees for FY 2012, FY 2013 and FY 2014.
Overview of the Low/Mod Calculation Process
This overview describes the calculation at the Moderate Income level.
Uncapped Low/Mod Data
Ten areas are exempt, as prescribed by Section 590 of the Quality and Work Responsibility Act of 1998, from the US median family income cap on income limits.