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RAISE Location Designations

RAISE location designations are 1) urban or rural, and 2) Area of Persistent Poverty and/or Historically Disadvantaged Community. These location designations affect the Federal share limit, minimum award size, and funding distribution. The RAISE Grant Project Location Verification mapping tool should be used to determine your project’s location designations.

Urban and Rural 

A project is designated as “urban” if it is located in a 2020 Census-designated Urban Area (UA) and that UA had a population greater than 200,000. 

A project will be designated as “rural” if it is located: 

  • In an UA that had a population less than 200,000 in the 2020 Census, OR
  • Outside of any UA.

Areas of Persistent Poverty and Historically Disadvantaged Communities Designations 

An “Area of Persistent Poverty” is defined by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. A project is located in an Area of Persistent Poverty if: 

  • the County (or equivalent jurisdiction) in which the project is located consistently had greater than or equal to 20 percent of the population living in poverty in all three of the following datasets: (a) the 1990 decennial census; (b) the 2000 decennial census; and (c) the most recent (2022) Small Area Income Poverty Estimates; OR 
  • the Census Tract in which the project is located has a poverty rate of at least 20 percent as measured by the 2014-2018 5-year data series available from the American Community Survey of the Bureau of the Census; OR 
  • the project is located in any territory or possession of the United States. 

A "Historically Disadvantaged Community" is defined by the Justice40 Interim Guidance Addendum, issued by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), and Climate Policy Office (CPO): 

  • any Census Tract identified as disadvantaged in the Climate & Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST), created by CEQ, which identifies such communities that have been marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution; OR 
  • any Federally Recognized Tribe or Tribal entity, whether or not they have land. 

Data Download 

Data from the RAISE Grant Project Location Verification mapping tool is available for optional download using the links below. 

Last updated: Monday, October 28, 2024