(a) The General Assembly finds that: (1) persons and families in many areas in Cecil County, including areas that contain presently stable neighborhoods and middle class residential housing, are unable to purchase, rehabilitate, and maintain decent, safe, and sanitary housing that provides an opportunity for home ownership either directly or through a condominium or cooperative form of ownership due to continuing increases in the cost of construction and rehabilitation, county taxes, heating and electricity expenses, maintenance and repair expenses, inflation, the cost of land, the cost of energy conservation measures, and the levels of borrowing costs; (2) the inability of families to purchase and maintain housing in the county results in: (i) the decline of new housing; (ii) the decay of existing housing and neighborhoods; and (iii) increases in costs for welfare, police, and fire protection; (3) the decline in new housing construction, and the decay of existing housing, has produced a critical shortage of adequate housing in the county that harms the economy of the county and the well-being of county residents; (4) without a program, private enterprise cannot construct or rehabilitate adequate housing for persons and families in the county; (5) forcing families to live in substandard housing is undesirable because it tends to decrease the interest of families in their communities, the maintenance of their property, and the preservation of their neighborhoods; (6) the county has a basic public interest in: (i) providing a supplemental source of single-family residential mortgage funds at a cost lower to the borrower than prevailing rates for residential mortgages; and (ii) stimulating a steady flow of money for residential housing to help in maintaining a well-balanced society, existing housing, a sound tax base, and established neighborhoods; (7) unless new facilities are constructed and existing housing, where appropriate, is rehabilitated, a large number of county residents have been and will be subject to hardship in finding decent, safe, and sanitary housing; (8) unless the supply of housing and the ability of persons and families to obtain mortgage financing is increased significantly and expeditiously, many county residents may be compelled to live in unsanitary, overcrowded, or unsafe conditions to the detriment of the health and welfare of the residents and of their community; (9) increasing the housing supply of the county and the ability of persons and families to obtain mortgage financing will: (i) aid the clearance, replanning, development, and redevelopment of blighted areas; (ii) alleviate the critical shortage of adequate housing; and (iii) greatly enhance the ability of the county to preserve and utilize existing housing and neighborhoods; (10) a major cause of the housing crisis is the lack of affordable loans so that persons and families can own and maintain decent, safe, and sanitary housing; (11) an additional major cause of the housing crisis is the lack of money available to finance housing by the private mortgage lending institutions of the State, frustrating the maintenance, sale, and purchase of existing housing in the county; (12) the powers authorized under this subtitle and the expenditure of public money necessary and appropriate to carry out a program are a valid public purpose; and (13) the enactment of this subtitle is in the public interest. (b) The legislative purpose of this subtitle is to expand money available at borrowing costs that are lower than prevailing costs for residential mortgages for persons and families to alleviate the shortage of adequate housing in Cecil County and to preserve existing housing and neighborhoods.
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