N.Y. Public Housing Law § 2: Policy of state and purpose of chapter

§ 2. Policy of state and purpose of chapter. It is hereby declared

that in certain areas of cities, towns and villages of the state there

exist insanitary and substandard housing conditions owing to

overcrowding and concentration of the population, improper planning,

excessive land coverage, lack of proper light, air and space, insanitary

design and arrangement, or lack of proper sanitary facilities; that

these conditions are chiefly in areas where low rent dwellings prevail

and that such conditions and dwellings are a menace to the health,

safety, morals, welfare and reasonable comfort of the citizens of this

state; that there is not an adequate supply of adequate, safe, and

sanitary dwelling accommodations for persons of low income; that these

conditions cause an increase and spread of disease and crime and

constitute a menace to the health, safety, morals, welfare, and comfort

of the citizens of the state; that these conditions inflict blight upon

the economic value of large areas, impair private investments and the

source of public revenues; that these conditions cannot be remedied by

the ordinary operation of private enterprise; that these conditions

require that provision be made for the investment of public and private

funds at low interest rates in low rent housing and the acquisition at

fair prices of adequate parcels of property, the gradual demolition of

existing insanitary and unsafe housing and the construction of new

housing facilities, under public supervision in accord with proper

standards of sanitation and safety and at a cost which will permit

monthly rentals which persons of low income can afford to pay; that

loans and subsidies by the state and its subdivisions are necessary for

such purposes; that the clearance, replanning, reconstruction and

rehabilitation of substandard and insanitary areas or the providing of

adequate, safe and sanitary low rent housing accommodations in these

areas and elsewhere for persons and families of low income, or both of

these, are public uses and purposes for which public money may be spent

and private property acquired; that these conditions require the

creation of the agencies and instrumentalities hereinafter prescribed,

which are declared to be agencies and instrumentalities of the state for

the purpose of attaining the ends herein recited; and the necessity in

the public interest for the provisions hereinafter enacted is hereby

declared as a matter of legislative determination.