§ 3. Definitions. The following terms, whenever used or referred to
in this chapter, shall have the following meaning, unless a different
meaning clearly appears from the context:

1. The term "commissioner" means the state commissioner of housing and
community renewal. Reference in this chapter or in any other general,
special or local law to state commissioner of housing shall be deemed to
mean and refer to the state commissioner of housing and community
renewal which is hereby made the new title of such office.

2. The term "authority" means a public corporation which is a
corporate governmental agency (except a county or municipal corporation)
organized pursuant to law to accomplish any or all of the purposes
specified in article eighteen of the constitution and includes the
following municipal housing authorities established prior to the first
day of January, nineteen hundred thirty-nine pursuant to chapter four of
the laws of nineteen hundred thirty-four and amendments thereof, namely,
Buffalo municipal housing authority, Lackawanna municipal housing
authority, New York city housing authority, Peekskill housing authority,
Port Jervis housing authority, Schenectady municipal housing authority,
Syracuse municipal housing authority, Tarrytown municipal housing
authority, Tuckahoe housing authority, municipal housing authority of
the city of Utica, New York, and Yonkers housing authority.

3. The term "housing company" means a limited profit or limited
dividend housing corporation organized pursuant to articles two or four
of the private housing finance law.

4. The term "multiple dwelling" means an existing building
accommodating three or more families living independently of each other.

5. The terms "municipal corporation" and "municipality" mean a city,
town or village; and the term "municipal" shall be deemed to relate to a
city, town or village.

6. The term "mayor" means the chief executive officer of a
municipality.

7. The term "local legislative body" means: (a) in a city, the board
of aldermen, common council, council, commission or other board or body
now or hereafter vested by its charter or other law with jurisdiction to
enact ordinances or local laws, except that in a city having a
population of one million or more the term shall, as to such city, mean
the officer or agency vested with power under the charter of such city,
or by other law, to act pursuant to this chapter; (b) in a town, the
town board; (c) in a village, the board of trustees.

7-a. The term "governing body of a district" means: (a) in a school
district, the board of education or board of trustees; in the case of
common school districts having one trustee, such trustee; (b) in a fire
alarm district or a fire protection district, the town board; (c) in a
fire district, the board of fire district commissioners; (d) in an
improvement district, the town board, except that if there be a separate
board of commissioners, the term shall mean the town board acting with
the approval of the board of commissioners.

8. The term "state comptroller" means the comptroller of the state of
New York.

9. The term "municipal comptroller" means the comptroller in a
municipality having a comptroller; in a municipality having no
comptroller, it means the chief financial officer of such municipality.

10. The term "state" means New York state.

11. The term "government" includes the state, a municipality and the
federal government, and any agency or instrumentality, corporate or
otherwise, of any of them acting for and on behalf of the state, a
municipality or the federal government.

12. The term "area" means a section of the municipality wherein the
commissioner or an authority or a municipality finds that insanitary or
substandard housing conditions exist. An area may include land whether
improved or unimproved, and buildings or improvements not in themselves
insanitary or substandard, the inclusion of which is deemed necessary by
the authority or the municipality or the commissioner, or for projects
of housing companies by the commissioner, for the effective clearance,
replanning, reconstruction or rehabilitation of the area of which such
land or property is a part.

13. The term "plan" means a plan or undertaking for the clearance,
replanning and reconstruction or rehabilitation of a substandard and
insanitary area or areas and for recreational and other facilities
incidental or appurtenant thereto to effectuate the purposes of article
eighteen of the constitution or any other provision of the constitution
delegating any similar power or providing homes for persons of low
income.

14. The term "project" means a specific work or improvement to
effectuate all or any part of a plan. The term shall include the lands,
buildings or any dwelling units therein, and improvements acquired,
owned, constructed, managed or operated hereunder, to provide dwelling
accommodations for persons of low income, and such stores, offices and
other non-housing facilities as well as social, recreational or communal
facilities, as may be deemed by the authority or municipality to be
incidental or appurtenant to a project. Subject to the provisions of
article eighteen of the constitution with respect to state projects,
such dwelling accommodations may be provided in any section of the
municipality, whether or not such section has insanitary or substandard
housing conditions. A project may be a federal project, a state project,
a municipal project or, subject to the limitations contained in section
seventy-five of this chapter, any combination of these.

15. The term "federal project" means a project aided or financed in
whole or in part, by the federal government.

16. The term "state project" means a project aided or financed in
whole or in part by the state and not by the federal government, except
as may be provided in section seventy-five of this chapter.

17. The term "municipal project" means a project other than a state
project or a federal project.

18. The terms "persons of low income" and "families of low income"
mean persons or families who are in the low income groups and who cannot
afford to pay enough to cause private enterprise in their municipality
to build a sufficient supply of adequate, safe and sanitary dwellings.

19. The term "mortgage" means mortgages, deeds of trust, building and
loan contracts or other instruments creating a lien.

20. The terms "real property" or "property" shall include lands and
improvements, lands under water, waterfront property, the water of any
lake, pond or stream, and any and all easements, franchises and
hereditaments, corporeal or incorporeal, and every estate, interest and
right therein, legal and equitable, in lands or water, and right,
interest, privilege, easement and franchise relating to the same,
including terms for years and liens by way of judgment, mortgage or
otherwise.

21. The term "obligee" shall include any bondholder, trustee or
trustees for any bondholders or any lessor demising property to an
authority or municipality used in connection with a project or an
assignee or assignees of such lessor's interest, and a government, which
is a party to any contract with the authority or municipality.

22. The term "going state rate of interest" means, at any time, the
annual rate of interest specified in the bonds of the state issued to
provide funds for a loan to effectuate the provisions of this chapter,
and if no such bonds have been issued, then the term means an annual
interest rate of two and one-half per centum.

23. The term "low rent housing" means dwellings within the financial
reach of families of low income and embraces recreational and other
facilities incidental and appurtenant thereto.

24. The term "project cost" means the cost of any or all undertakings
necessary for planning, financing (including payment of carrying
charges), land acquisition, demolition, construction, equipment, and
site development of new buildings, reconstruction, rehabilitation,
repair or remodeling of existing buildings, but, except as to existing
housing company projects, or parts thereof, sold, leased or otherwise
conveyed to an authority, not beyond the point of physical completion,
and the cost of tenant placement service in connection with a project.
In the case of new construction, the "project cost" shall be sufficient
to encourage excellence of architectural design, variety and interest in
building materials, and aesthetic objectives compatible with prudent
budgeting. Where a housing company project, or a part thereof, is
purchased by, leased or otherwise conveyed to an authority, the term
"project cost" may include the cost of such purchase, lease or other
conveyance as determined and certified by the commissioner.

25. The term "condemnation" means the acquisition of real property in
the manner provided by the eminent domain procedure law by the
municipality in which the real property is to be taken.

26. The term "planning commission" means any agency of a municipality
authorized to prepare, adopt or amend the map of the municipality or
empowered to prepare and adopt and from time to time modify a
comprehensive or master plan of the municipality.

27. The term "tenant services" shall include but not be limited to
counseling on household management, housekeeping, budgeting, money
management, child care, and similar matters or services which are
directly related to meeting tenant needs and providing a wholesome
living environment; and referral to appropriate agencies when necessary
for the provision of such services.