The legislature hereby finds and declares that there is a serious shortage of decent affordable housing in the state for persons of low income; that the cost of providing such housing without public participation and assistance is prohibitively high; that programs operated by municipal housing authorities and municipalities have for decades provided hundreds of thousands of low income New Yorkers with decent, safe and affordable housing; that due to the lack of funds available for leveraging state dollars for low income housing, and the delay that occurs when a variety of funding sources are used to produce such housing, a need exists for the state to fully finance debt free low income housing. The legislature therefore finds that a program should be established pursuant to which the housing trust fund corporation shall provide grants or loans to municipal housing authorities, municipalities and not-for-profit organizations or charitable organizations, housing development fund companies, or private developers which shall be used to pay for all or a portion of the project costs of constructing or rehabilitating turnkey/enhanced rental organizations, housing development fund companies, or private developers which shall be used to pay for all or a portion of the project costs of constructing or rehabilitating turnkey/enhanced rental projects, and that such projects shall thereafter be owned by eligible owners for the benefit of persons of low income. The legislature intends that grants or loans provided to municipal housing authorities, or municipalities through the low income turnkey/enhanced housing trust fund program shall not substitute for funds which such authorities or municipalities would have spent in the absence of such program, and that authorities and municipalities shall use such grants or loans to increase the supply of low income housing to levels greater than would have been possible without such program.
New York Legal Code