Sixty percent of the general funds available to the service corps program shall be for enrollees from distressed areas and for projects in distressed areas. A distressed area shall mean:

(1) A county which has an unemployment rate which is twenty percent above the state average for the immediately preceding three years;

(2) A community which has experienced sudden and severe loss of employment; or

(3) An area within a county which area:

(a) Is composed of contiguous census tracts;

(b) Has a minimum population of five thousand persons;

(c) The median household income is at least thirty-five percent below the county's median household income, as determined from data collected for the preceding United States ten-year census; and

(d) Has an unemployment rate which is at least forty percent higher than the county's unemployment rate. For purposes of this definition, "families and unrelated individuals" has the same meaning that is ascribed to that term by the federal department of housing and urban development in its regulations authorizing action grants for economic development and neighborhood revitalization projects.