Pennsylvania Statutes Title 35 P.S. Health and Safety § 1662. Declaration of policy

(a) That in both urban and rural communities of Pennsylvania there exist inadequate or over-crowded dwellings accompanied by an acute shortage of decent, safe and sanitary housing within the financial reach of families of limited incomes;

(b) That these conditions singly and in combination are a menace to the health and welfare of the people of Pennsylvania because they encourage the spread of disease, impair public health and morals, increase the hazard of fires and accidents, resulting in loss of life and property, subject the young to influences which have a permanently deleterious effect on their moral standards, increase violation of the criminal laws of the Commonwealth, jeopardizing the safety and welfare of its people, and necessitating the expenditure of large sums of public money for the purpose of crime prevention, punishment and correction, fire protection, public health and relief;

(c) That the correction of these conditions requires the erection of housing projects on a basis which will provide additional housing at rentals which persons of limited incomes can afford to pay, but such projects have not been erected because of the high construction costs which prevail;

(d) That to induce the erection and maintenance of the housing needed for persons of limited incomes, it is essential that the Commonwealth assume a portion of the rental cost by paying for a portion of the construction costs of certain new housing projects;

(e) That it has been found and declared in the Urban Redevelopment Law  1 that there exists in urban communities in this Commonwealth areas which have become blighted, that such conditions are beyond remedy or control by regulatory processes in certain blighted areas or portions thereof and cannot be effectively dealt with under existing law without additional aid, and that the public interest requires the remedying of these conditions.

(f) That certain blighted areas, or portions thereof, may require total acquisition, clearance and disposition, subject to continuing controls as provided in this act, since the prevailing condition of decay may make impracticable the reclamation of the area by rehabilitation or conservation, and that other blighted areas, or portions thereof, through the means provided in this act, may be susceptible to rehabilitation or conservation or a combination of clearance and disposition and rehabilitation or conservation in such manner that the conditions and evils hereinbefore enumerated may be eliminated or remedied.

(g) It is hereby found that concentrated enforcement of building, housing, plumbing, electrical, fire and zoning codes will also promote the public health, safety, convenience and welfare.

Therefore, it is declared to be the policy of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to promote the health, morals, safety and welfare of its inhabitants by providing for State assistance to tenants of limited income through a contribution to the cost of housing projects to be erected and offered for occupancy at moderate rentals as a means of making such housing available to them at rentals within their ability to pay, and by assisting the communities of this Commonwealth in remedying the conditions set forth in the Urban Redevelopment Law and for carrying out comprehensive programs for the development of entire sections or neighborhoods by making grants to municipalities or redevelopment authorities.