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:

1. Census tracts receiving the highest 25 percent of overall scores in CalEnviroScreen 4.0 (1,984 tracts).
2. 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).
3. Census tracts identified in the 2017 DAC designation as disadvantaged, regardless of their scores in CalEnviroScreen 4.0 (307 tracts).
4. 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

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Download SB 535 CalEnviroScreen Data

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

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.