The Small Business Administration is actively encouraging new firms to join the HUBZone (Historically Underutilized Business Zone) program, following a decertification of 27% of HUBZone firms in early 2012.

“The SBA has hosted more than 68 HUBZone Awareness Outreach Events around the country to recruit new firms into the HUBZone program,” Tiffani Clements, SBA spokeswoman, told Set-Aside Alert.

The decertifications occurred primarily as a result of shifts in employment and poverty reflected in the 2010 census. Growing prosperity in some tracts ended HUBZone eligibility.

The SBA decertified 2,519 firms in early 2012, Clements said.

Prior to Oct. 1, 2011, there were 8,141 certified firms in the HUBZone portfolio. By Feb. 29, 2012, there were 5,888, she said.

Most but not all decertifications were the result of the census tract redesignations.

Some of the HUBZone businesses voluntarily left the program or no longer met the eligibility requirements for other reasons. (See http://www.sba.gov/hubzone/)