71-1574.

Act; purposes.

The purposes of the Nebraska Housing Agency Act are:

(1) To remedy the shortage of decent, safe, and sanitary housing affordable to persons of low and moderate income, to provide opportunities to secure such housing to all such persons, to preserve existing supplies of such housing, and to create, administer, and operate programs to increase and maintain access to decent, safe, and sanitary rental housing and home ownership upon terms affordable to such persons;

(2) To encourage the development, redevelopment, rehabilitation, and preservation of safe, livable neighborhoods containing housing that is affordable to persons of low and moderate income, including mixed-income developments, and to reduce where feasible high residential concentrations of impoverished persons;

(3) In connection with the provision of affordable housing and related activities authorized under the act, to eliminate or ameliorate conditions of blight and physical deterioration in public facilities and the residential infrastructure;

(4) To provide housing, rental, and other assistance to persons of low and moderate income and assistance to properties and entities in accordance with the provisions of the act and, subject to standards and procedures adopted by the local housing agency, to authorize the provision by local housing agencies of supportive services and programs of every kind and description to advance the social, educational, and economic well-being and the economic and social self-sufficiency of persons receiving housing assistance under the act so as to create wholesome living environments, eliminate long-term poverty, encourage gainful employment, develop social and economic self-sufficiency, including living independently of housing assistance, and enhance personal responsibility on the part of such persons;

(5) To increase intergovernmental cooperation and the use of consortia and intergovernmental partnerships for the development of affordable housing and suitable neighborhoods;

(6) To encourage the use of entrepreneurial methods and approaches and to stimulate and increase private sector initiatives and joint public-private sector initiatives by local housing agencies in carrying out the purposes and provisions of the act;

(7) To increase the availability, from both public and private sector sources, of financing for the purchase of dwellings and the financing for home improvements, repairs, and rehabilitation at rates and upon terms that are affordable to persons of low or moderate income and to increase the availability of sources of equity and other financing for the development and operation by local housing agencies and private sector entities of decent, safe, and sanitary rental housing that is affordable to persons of low and moderate income; and

(8) In carrying out the purposes described in this section, to vest in local housing agencies reasonable responsibility, authority, and discretion.