Section 1542 - Findings and declaration of policyIt has been determined by the General Assembly of this Commonwealth, and it is hereby declared as a matter of legislative finding that--
(a) There exist in urban and rural communities, within the various counties of this Commonwealth, numerous slums and unsafe, unsanitary, inadequate or overcrowded dwellings, which conditions are accompanied and aggravated by an acute shortage of decent, safe, and sanitary dwellings within the financial reach of persons of low income, such conditions arising from overcrowding, dilapidation, faulty construction, obsolete buildings, lack of proper light, air, and sanitary facilities.(b) The existence of any of the above enumerated conditions is prejudicial to the welfare of the people of this Commonwealth because such conditions--(1) encourage the spread of disease and impair public health and morals; (2) increase the hazards of fires, accidents, and other calamities which result in loss of life and property; (3) subject the moral standards of the people to bad influences which have permanent deleterious social effects; (4) increase the violation of the criminal laws of the Commonwealth so as to jeopardize the safety and well-being of the inhabitants thereof; (5) necessitate the expenditure of vast sums of public money, both by the Commonwealth and local governmental bodies, for the purpose of crime prevention, punishment, and correction, fire and accident prevention, public health service and relief. (c) The failure to remedy the acute dwelling shortage is directly related to the stagnation of business activity in the construction, durable goods, and allied industries which are conducted within this Commonwealth, and the stagnation of which has produced serious and prolonged unemployment, with all its injurious effects upon the welfare of the inhabitants of this Commonwealth.(d) Private industry alone has been and now is unable to overcome the obstacles which have prevented and are now preventing it from clearing slum areas and relieving the shortage of decent, safe, and sanitary dwellings for persons of low income, and the construction, pursuant to this act, of housing projects for persons of low income would therefore not be competitive with private enterprise. Therefore, it is hereby declared to be the policy of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to promote the health and welfare of the inhabitants thereof by the creation of corporate and politic bodies to be known as housing authorities. The public purposes for which such authorities shall operate shall be-- (1) the clearance, replanning and reconstruction of the areas in which slums exist; (2) the providing of safe and sanitary dwelling accommodations for persons of low income through new construction or the reconstruction, restoration, reconditioning, remodeling or repair of existing structures, so as to prevent recurrence of the economically and socially disastrous conditions hereinbefore described; and (3) the accomplishment of a combination of the foregoing. Such purposes are hereby declared to be public uses for which public money may be spent, and private property acquired by the exercise of the power of eminent domain.
1937, May 28, P.L. 955, § 2. Amended 1965, Dec. 22, P.L. 1167, No. 461, § 1.