§ 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.