- Our Guidelines: Effective January 2014, in order to qualify for a TEA certification, the following requirements need to be met:
- The Census tract(s) and/or block group(s) used toward a contiguous or shared method designation cannot consist of more than 12 tracts within a 4 to 5 mile radius of the proposed site.
- Designation Requests: (Petitioners should consider the following prior to submitting a request)
- A specific address for the proposed investment will be needed to determine whether or not the new business is situated in a qualifying area. However, if a specific address is not yet available, a general description of the location or close area will suffice to tie the request to a qualifying area within a MSA, county, CDP, or city.
- Verify that the designated census tracts combined qualifies as a High Unemployment Area (has an unemployment rate equal to or exceeding 150 percent of the national unemployment average) using the current statistical analysis. The City of Houston requires that you use the most up to date labor data. At the current time, the most recent unemployment information at the census tract level is the American Community Survey (ACS) 2009-2014 – 5 Year estimate used in conjunction with the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) 2014 county unemployment.
