§ 2. Statement of legislative findings and purposes. It is hereby
found and declared that the provision of new and improved state
facilities relating to the care, maintenance and treatment of the
mentally disabled must be accelerated if the state is to meet its
responsibilities in the face of an increasing state population, a
growing awareness that mental disability can be treated effectively, and
new research advances in treatment methods. An expanded construction
program is essential to relieve overcrowding in the state hospitals for
the mentally ill, to provide treatment and care for the increasing
population of people with developmental disabilities in state schools,
and to permit the establishment of special treatment programs for
mentally ill and emotionally disturbed children and for the mentally ill
blind and the mentally ill deaf. Existing state facilities require
substantial modernization and structural change to accommodate new
concepts of treatment for the mentally disabled and special units for
the treatment of alcoholism and narcotics addiction. Larger and better
equipped research facilities must be installed in order to insure that
state treatment units are in the forefront of applying and developing
advanced therapeutic methods. At the same time, improved training
facilities and quarters are needed to attract and retain the
best-qualified staff personnel.

To assure that the required facilities are completed and ready for use
as promptly as possible, the legislature hereby finds and declares that
there should be created a corporate governmental agency, constituting a
public benefit corporation, to be known as the "Facilities Development
Corporation", which could receive and administer monies for the
construction and improvement of mental hygiene facilities and provide
such facilities in accordance with the foreseeable needs for the care,
maintenance and treatment of the mentally disabled. The legislature
further finds and declares that while responsibility for the
professional care, maintenance and treatment of the mentally disabled at
all mental facilities should continue in the department of mental
hygiene, exclusive possession, jurisdiction, control and supervision of
the physical facilities used therefor should be vested in the
corporation in order to facilitate the exercise of its powers.

It is further found and declared that the provision of new and
improved community mental health and developmental disabilities
facilities must be accelerated, in order to provide comprehensive care
and treatment of the mentally ill and developmentally disabled. Such
community mental health and developmental disabilities facilities should
be located close to the people they serve, in order to speed
rehabilitation and restoration, by involving families and community
resources to the extent practicable. Such an accelerated construction
program will also help relieve overcrowding in state facilities for the
mentally ill and developmentally disabled and will afford treatment and
care for the increasing number of people with developmental
disabilities. Such a program will increase the number of local
facilities for out-patient care and short-term in-patient care,
including after care, diagnostic and rehabilitative services, training
and research. While the responsibility for the professional care,
maintenance and treatment of the mentally ill and developmentally
disabled at all such community mental health and developmental
disabilities facilities should continue in the local governments,
subject to the provisions of article forty-one of title E of the mental
hygiene law and the regulations of the commissioners of the offices of
the department having jurisdiction thereof, the legislature further
finds and declares that the Facilities Development Corporation should be
empowered to aid cities and counties, at their request, to provide new
and improved community mental health and developmental disabilities
facilities in order to insure their timely construction, acquisition,
reconstruction, rehabilitation and improvement in relation to current
and foreseeable needs and the emergence of new patterns of treatment and
care and should be empowered to receive and administer monies for such
purpose.

It is further found and declared that hospital and related services of
municipalities are of vital concern to the health, safety and welfare of
the people of the state. Many municipal hospital facilities today are no
longer adequate to meet the needs of modern medical care. Because of the
rapidity of technological change in the medical field, a great number of
such facilities require substantial structural and functional changes.
Many municipal hospitals are overcrowded in their ancillary service
areas. Many still have large open wards, while the growth of
hospitalization insurance has brought increased demand for semi-private
accommodations. Many of such hospitals have permitted their buildings to
deteriorate prematurely and other suffer inefficiencies caused by
piecemeal and uncoordinated additions. The educational programs of
hospitals have become indispensable. Many hospitals are, in fact,
educational institutions but their plants and equipment are not equal to
their educational commitment. They lack facilities for needed
conferences and seminars and their libraries and medical records
departments do not meet the needs of individual studies and research.
Many of such hospitals no longer have adequate protection against the
hazards of fire, explosion and infection. Many of such hospitals lack
facilities for ambulant or wheelchair patients, and are inadequately
designed for the tremendous increase in personnel traffic and movement
of supplies and equipment within the hospital.

It is further found and declared that the construction, modification,
reconstruction and rehabilitation of municipal hospitals and related
health care facilities, including the provision of equipment, are public
purposes and are necessary for the protection of the health, safety and
welfare of the people of the state. To assure that such purposes are
carried out, it is further found and declared that the facilities
development corporation created by this act should be empowered, in
cooperation with the state, municipalities and the New York state
housing finance agency or the New York state medical care facilities
finance agency, as the case may be, to provide for the timely
construction and modernization of municipal hospitals and related
facilities at a reasonable cost and in accordance with the health needs
of the community.

It is hereby found and declared that the acquisition, construction,
reconstruction, rehabilitation and improvement of facilities for the
department of corrections and community supervision are public purposes
which are essential to enable comprehensive modernization of the state's
programs of corrections. To assure that such purposes are carried out,
it is further found and declared that the facilities development
corporation should be empowered in cooperation with the department of
corrections and community supervision to provide for the acquisition,
construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation and improvement of
facilities for the department of corrections and community supervision.

In order to accomplish all of these purposes, the legislature hereby
declares that the existing corporate governmental agency constituting a
public benefit corporation, created by article two-B of the mental
hygiene law, shall be reconstituted and continued as the facilities
development corporation which corporation shall also have such
additional powers and duties as are granted to it in this act.