Illinois Statutes Chapter 310. Housing § 10/2. Declaration of public interest

§ 2. It is hereby declared as a matter of legislative determination that in order to promote and protect the health, safety, morals and welfare of the public, it is necessary in the public interest to provide for the creation of municipal corporations to be known as housing authorities, and to confer upon and vest in these housing authorities all powers necessary or appropriate in order that they may engage in low-rent housing and slum clearance projects, and provide rental assistance, and undertake land assembly, clearance, rehabilitation, development, and redevelopment projects as will tend to relieve the shortage of decent, safe, affordable, and sanitary dwellings; and that the powers herein conferred upon the housing authorities including the power to acquire and dispose of improved or unimproved property, to remove unsanitary or substandard conditions, to construct and operate housing accommodations, to regulate the maintenance of housing projects and to borrow, expend, loan, invest, and repay monies for the purposes herein set forth, are public objects and governmental functions essential to the public interest.

It is further declared as a matter of legislative determination that the crucial affordable housing shortage which continues to prevail throughout the State has contributed and will continue to contribute materially toward an increase in crime, juvenile delinquency, infant mortality, drug abuse, drug disability and disease; that by reason thereof it has become a social and economic imperative to broaden the powers of housing authorities with respect to the acquisition of property, the construction of housing accommodations, the provision of rental assistance and the assembly, clearance and sale or other disposition of property acquired for development or redevelopment by persons, firms and corporations; that the provisions of this Act are grounded in public necessity and predicated upon serious emergency conditions requiring immediate consideration and action, and that this amendatory Act embraces public objects and governmental functions essential to the public interest.

It is further declared that in municipalities of less than 500,000 population further stimulus must be provided for the conservation of urban areas and the prevention of slums if the public interest objectives of the Urban Community Conservation Act,  1 are to be secured; that in these municipalities housing authorities should be authorized to initiate, plan, study and execute urban conservation projects as an alternative mechanism to that provided in the Urban Community Conservation Act; that unless this authority is so delegated there is a serious and substantial risk that many urban areas will deteriorate into actual slum and blight areas; and that to prevent the occurrence of these conditions and the social evils attendant thereon, and to protect and conserve the public interest, the provisions of this amendatory Act are necessary.