§ 1221. Definitions. As used in this article:

1. "Corporation" shall mean the housing trust fund corporation
established in section forty-five-a of this chapter.

2. "Eligible applicant" shall mean a unit of local government or
not-for-profit corporation in existence for a period of one or more
years prior to application, which is, or will be at the time of award,
incorporated under the not-for-profit corporation law and has been
engaged primarily in community development activities.

3. "Eligible area" shall mean an area: (i) that has experienced
sustained physical deterioration, decay, neglect, or disinvestment; (ii)
has a number of substandard buildings or vacant residential or
commercial units; and (iii) in which more than fifty percent of the
residents are persons of low income, or which is designated by a state
or federal agency to be eligible for a community or economic development
program.

4. "Main street program" or "program" shall mean a proposal by an
eligible applicant for a specific work or series of works for the
revitalization and improvement of an eligible area through the creation,
preservation or improvement of residential housing units; local
commercial facilities; public facilities or other aspects of the area
environment. Not less than eighty percent of the total amount awarded
pursuant to this article in any fiscal year shall be allocated to main
street programs that include the creation, preservation or improvement
of residential housing units as an objective.

5. "Persons of low income" shall mean those persons and families whose
incomes do not exceed ninety percent of the area median income for the
county in which a project is located as calculated by the United States
department of housing and urban development.