Home buyers, lenders and small businesses

What address should we check?

Check one address against the USDA rural eligibility map, the SBA HUBZone map and Opportunity Zone tracts, and keep a short dated note. Free.

  • Free to read
  • No sign-up until the draft
  • Hands off to the right door
5 FT APN 018-224-07 ADU · 640 SQ FT

ePlan fills in

  • USDA rural eligibility
  • HUBZone status
  • Opportunity Zone tract
  • Census tract

How it works

Eligibility map note, from one answer

  1. Enter the address and pick the programs.
  2. ePlan checks each program's public map and the census tract.
  3. Read the free note. Using federal money on the site? Start a HUD environmental review draft.

What you get

Eligibility map note and 1 more document

The check is free. The paperwork after it is drafted at the HUD environmental review door.

The first draft

Eligibility map note (free)

  1. Address and census tract
  2. USDA rural area result
  3. HUBZone result
  4. Opportunity Zone tract result
  5. Date and map versions checked
  6. Who confirms eligibility

Modeled on: USDA eligibility site, SBA HUBZone map, CDFI Fund Opportunity Zone resources

Next · 2

HUD Part 58 environmental review record

  1. Project and level of review
  2. Related laws checklist
  3. Findings and notices

From public data

What ePlan fills in, and from where

2,500 people

or fewer, in a place not part of an urban area, makes a town rural for USDA housing programs; larger towns must pass extra tests
Source: 42 U.S.C. 1490

Ready for the paperwork?

Draft your Part 58 environmental review record: level of review, related-law checks, public notices and the RROF, ready to enter in HEROS.

HUD environmental review →

Questions

Eligibility map note: what people ask

What counts as rural for USDA housing programs?

Open country, or a place not part of an urban area with up to 2,500 people; up to 10,000 if rural in character; or up to 20,000 outside a metro area with a serious lack of mortgage credit. Some older rural areas keep the status up to 35,000 until 2030 census data.

Source: law.cornell.edu

What makes a business HUBZone-eligible?

Its principal office must be in a HUBZone, at least 35% of its employees must live in one, and it must be at least 51% owned and controlled by U.S. citizens or owned by a tribe, Alaska Native corporation or other listed entity.

Source: ecfr.gov

How is the 35% counted?

By employees who qualify as HUBZone residents. If 35% works out to a fraction, SBA rounds to the nearest whole number; a firm with one employee needs that person to live in a HUBZone.

Source: ecfr.gov

The rules this door follows