For administration of the American Rescue Plan (ARP), the Office of Policy and Management (OPM) is providing access to data on Qualified Census Tracts (QCTs) in Connecticut.

As part of guidance for implementation of the ARP, Treasury identified QCTs as "a common, readily-accessible, and geographically granular method of identifying communities with a large proportion of low-income residents. Using an existing measure may speed implementation and decrease administrative burden, while identifying areas of need at a highly-localized level."

Data on all CT QCTs can be downloaded here. Complete documentation on QCTs is available via the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) with this page intended to provide access to data on Connecticut QCTs.

Definition: The Secretary of HUD must designate QCTs, which are areas where either 50 percent or more of the households have an income less than 60 percent of the Area Median Gross Income (AMGI) in a given year or have a poverty rate of at least 20 percent. 

Data: HUD designates QCTs based on new income and poverty data released in the American Community Survey (ACS). Specifically, HUD relies on the most recent three sets of ACS data to ensure that anomalous estimates, due to sampling, do not affect the QCT status of tracts. 

Significance: QCTs are identified for the purposes of Low-Income Housing Credits under IRC Section 42, with the purpose of increasing the availability of low-income rental housing by providing an income tax credit to certain owners of newly constructed or substantially rehabilitated low-income rental housing projects.

The following chart provides summary data on QCTs by town, including the percent of the population residing in a QCT, the percent of tracts that qualify as QCTs, and the population by town.