SB 535 Disadvantaged Communities

California Climate Investments to Benefit Disadvantaged Communities

Disadvantaged communities in California are specifically targeted for investment of proceeds from the state’s Cap-and-Trade Program. These investments are aimed at improving public health, quality of life and economic opportunity in California’s most burdened communities, and at the same time, reducing pollution that causes climate change. The investments are authorized by the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (Assembly Bill 32, Nunez, 2016).

In 2012, Senate Bill (SB) 535 (De León, Chapter 830, Statutes of 2012) established initial requirements for minimum funding levels to “Disadvantaged Communities” (DACs). The legislation also gives CalEPA the responsibility for identifying those communities, stating that CalEPA’s designation of disadvantaged communities must be based on “geographic, socioeconomic, public health, and environmental hazard criteria”.

In 2016, Assembly Bill (AB) 1550 (Gomez, Chapter 369, Statutes of 2016) directed CalEPA to identify DACs and also established the currently applicable minimum funding levels:

At least 25 percent of funds must be allocated toward DACs
At least 5 percent must be allocated toward projects within low-income communities or benefiting low-income households
At least 5 percent must be allocated toward projects within and benefiting low-income communities, or low-income households, that are outside of a CalEPA-defined DAC but within ½ mile of a disadvantaged community.

Final Designation of Disadvantaged Communities (May 2022)
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After receiving public input at workshops and in written comments, in May 2022, CalEPA released its updated designation of disadvantaged communities for the purpose of SB 535. In this designation, CalEPA formally designated four categories of geographic areas as disadvantaged:

Census tracts receiving the highest 25 percent of overall scores in CalEnviroScreen 4.0 (1,984 tracts).
Census tracts lacking overall scores in CalEnviroScreen 4.0 due to data gaps, but receiving the highest 5 percent of CalEnviroScreen 4.0 cumulative pollution burden scores (19 tracts).
Census tracts identified in the 2017 DAC designation as disadvantaged, regardless of their scores in CalEnviroScreen 4.0 (307 tracts).
Lands under the control of federally recognized Tribes. For purposes of this designation, a Tribe may establish that a particular area of land is under its control even if not represented as such on CalEPA’s DAC map and therefore should be considered a DAC by requesting a consultation with the CalEPA Deputy Secretary for Environmental Justice, Tribal Affairs and Border Relations at TribalAffairs@calepa.ca.gov.

The designation takes into account the latest and best available data and considers factors related to data unavailability. This designation will go into effect on July 1, 2022, at which point programs funded through California Climate Investments will use the designation in making funding decisions.

Disadvantaged Communities Map

Click to open this map in a new window

Download SB 535 CalEnviroScreen Data

In addition to the interactive map above, SB 535 disadvantaged communities data is available for download in other formats:

SB 535 Excel Spreadsheet and data dictionary (May 2022). There are two files in this zipped folder. 1) a spreadsheet showing the list of census tracts identified as disadvantaged communities, a list of the Federally recognized tribal areas identified as disadvantaged communities, and the raw data and calculated percentiles for individual indicators and combined CalEnviroScreen scores for census tracts identified as disadvantaged communities. 2) a pdf document including the data dictionary. This list was last updated in May 2024 with additional tribal lands based on consultations that occurred in 2023 and 2024.
SB 535 ArcGIS Geodatabase (May 2022): A zipped file which can be unzipped, then opened using ArcGIS software to view the results. (ArcGIS is a paid subscription) This map was last updated in May 2024 with additional tribal lands based on consultations that occurred in 2023 and 2024.

Service URL: ArcGIS feature service: https://services1.arcgis.com/PCHfdHz4GlDNAhBb/arcgis/rest/services/SB_535_Disadvantaged_Communities_2022/FeatureServer

Additional information as well as the previous identification of disadvantaged communities from 2017 using CalEnviroScreen 3.0 is available on the CalEPA page.

For questions, please contact CalEnviroScreen@oehha.ca.gov or (916) 324-7572.