Pennsylvania HB 1293: An Act amending the act of May 28, 1937 (P.L.955, No.265), referred to as the Housing Authorities Law, further providing for findings and declaration of policy, for definitions, for formation of housing authorities, for powers of an authority and for establishment of rentals and selection of tenants.

Bill Text

PRINTER'S NO. 1473
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
HOUSE BILL
No. 1293
Session of
2025
INTRODUCED BY PROKOPIAK, GIRAL, SANCHEZ, GUENST, NEILSON, KHAN,
PIELLI, MADDEN, HILL-EVANS, SCHLOSSBERG, CERRATO, MALAGARI,
SHUSTERMAN, RIVERA AND STEELE, APRIL 23, 2025
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT,
APRIL 23, 2025
AN ACT
Amending the act of May 28, 1937 (P.L.955, No.265), entitled "An
act to promote public health, safety, morals, and welfare by
declaring the necessity of creating public bodies, corporate
and politic, to be known as housing authorities to engage in
slum clearance, and to undertake projects, to provide
dwelling accommodations for persons of low income; providing
for the organization of such housing authorities; defining
their powers and duties; providing for the exercise of such
powers, including the acquisition of property by purchase,
gift or eminent domain, the renting and selling of property,
and including borrowing money, issuing bonds, and other
obligations, and giving security therefor; prescribing the
remedies of obligees of housing authorities; authorizing
housing authorities to enter into agreements, including
agreements with the United States, the Commonwealth, and
political subdivisions and municipalities thereof; defining
the application of zoning, sanitary, and building laws and
regulations to projects built or maintained by such housing
authorities; exempting the property and securities of such
housing authorities from taxation; and imposing duties and
conferring powers upon the State Planning Board, and certain
other State officers and departments," further providing for
findings and declaration of policy, for definitions, for
formation of housing authorities, for powers of an authority
and for establishment of rentals and selection of tenants.
The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
hereby enacts as follows:
Section 1. Section 2 of the act of May 28, 1937 (P.L.955,
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No.265), known as the Housing Authorities Law, is amended to
read:
Section 2. Findings and Declaration of Policy.--It has been
determined by the General Assembly of this Commonwealth, and it
is hereby declared as a matter of legislative finding that--
(a) There exists 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 and persons of moderate 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
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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 persons of moderate income, and the construction,
pursuant to this act, of housing projects for persons of low
income and persons of moderate 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