N.Y. Facilities Development Corporation Act § 2
It is hereby found and declared that the provision of new and improved state facilities relating to the care, maintenance and treatment of the mentally disabled must be accelerated if the state is to meet its responsibilities in the face of an increasing state population, a growing awareness that mental disability can be treated effectively, and new research advances in treatment methods. An expanded construction program is essential to relieve overcrowding in the state hospitals for the mentally ill, to provide treatment and care for the increasing population of people with developmental disabilities in state schools, and to permit the establishment of special treatment programs for mentally ill and emotionally disturbed children and for the mentally ill blind and the mentally ill deaf. Existing state facilities require substantial modernization and structural change to accommodate new concepts of treatment for the mentally disabled and special units for the treatment of alcoholism and narcotics addiction. Larger and better equipped research facilities must be installed in order to insure that state treatment units are in the forefront of applying and developing advanced therapeutic methods. At the same time, improved training facilities and quarters are needed to attract and retain the best-qualified staff personnel.
To assure that the required facilities are completed and ready for use as promptly as possible, the legislature hereby finds and declares that there should be created a corporate governmental agency, constituting a public benefit corporation, to be known as the "Facilities Development Corporation", which could receive and administer monies for the construction and improvement of mental hygiene facilities and provide such facilities in accordance with the foreseeable needs for the care, maintenance and treatment of the mentally disabled. The legislature further finds and declares that while responsibility for the professional care, maintenance and treatment of the mentally disabled at all mental facilities should continue in the department of mental hygiene, exclusive possession, jurisdiction, control and supervision of the physical facilities used therefor should be vested in the corporation in order to facilitate the exercise of its powers.
It is further found and declared that the provision of new and improved community mental health and developmental disabilities facilities must be accelerated, in order to provide comprehensive care and treatment of the mentally ill and developmentally disabled. Such community mental health and developmental disabilities facilities should be located close to the people they serve, in order to speed rehabilitation and restoration, by involving families and community resources to the extent practicable. Such an accelerated construction program will also help relieve overcrowding in state facilities for the mentally ill and developmentally disabled and will afford treatment and care for the increasing number of people with developmental disabilities. Such a program will increase the number of local facilities for out-patient care and short-term in-patient care, including after care, diagnostic and rehabilitative services, training and research. While the responsibility for the professional care, maintenance and treatment of the mentally ill and developmentally disabled at all such community mental health and developmental disabilities facilities should continue in the local governments, subject to the provisions of article forty-one of title E of the mental hygiene law and the regulations of the commissioners of the offices of the department having jurisdiction thereof, the legislature further finds and declares that the Facilities Development Corporation should be empowered to aid cities and counties, at their request, to provide new and improved community mental health and developmental disabilities facilities in order to insure their timely construction, acquisition, reconstruction, rehabilitation and improvement in relation to current and foreseeable needs and the emergence of new patterns of treatment and care and should be empowered to receive and administer monies for such purpose.
It is further found and declared that hospital and related services of municipalities are of vital concern to the health, safety and welfare of the people of the state. Many municipal hospital facilities today are no longer adequate to meet the needs of modern medical care. Because of the rapidity of technological change in the medical field, a great number of such facilities require substantial structural and functional changes. Many municipal hospitals are overcrowded in their ancillary service areas. Many still have large open wards, while the growth of hospitalization insurance has brought increased demand for semi-private accommodations. Many of such hospitals have permitted their buildings to deteriorate prematurely and other suffer inefficiencies caused by piecemeal and uncoordinated additions. The educational programs of hospitals have become indispensable. Many hospitals are, in fact, educational institutions but their plants and equipment are not equal to their educational commitment. They lack facilities for needed conferences and seminars and their libraries and medical records departments do not meet the needs of individual studies and research. Many of such hospitals no longer have adequate protection against the hazards of fire, explosion and infection. Many of such hospitals lack facilities for ambulant or wheelchair patients, and are inadequately designed for the tremendous increase in personnel traffic and movement of supplies and equipment within the hospital.
It is further found and declared that the construction, modification, reconstruction and rehabilitation of municipal hospitals and related health care facilities, including the provision of equipment, are public purposes and are necessary for the protection of the health, safety and welfare of the people of the state. To assure that such purposes are carried out, it is further found and declared that the facilities development corporation created by this act should be empowered, in cooperation with the state, municipalities and the New York state housing finance agency or the New York state medical care facilities finance agency, as the case may be, to provide for the timely construction and modernization of municipal hospitals and related facilities at a reasonable cost and in accordance with the health needs of the community.
It is hereby found and declared that the acquisition, construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation and improvement of facilities for the department of corrections and community supervision are public purposes which are essential to enable comprehensive modernization of the state's programs of corrections. To assure that such purposes are carried out, it is further found and declared that the facilities development corporation should be empowered in cooperation with the department of corrections and community supervision to provide for the acquisition, construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation and improvement of facilities for the department of corrections and community supervision.
In order to accomplish all of these purposes, the legislature hereby declares that the existing corporate governmental agency constituting a public benefit corporation, created by article two-B of the mental hygiene law, shall be reconstituted and continued as the facilities development corporation which corporation shall also have such additional powers and duties as are granted to it in this act.
N.Y. Facilities Development Corporation Act Law § 2