N.Y. Pub. Hous. Law § 2
It is hereby declared that in certain areas of cities, towns and villages of the state there exist insanitary and substandard housing conditions owing to overcrowding and concentration of the population, improper planning, excessive land coverage, lack of proper light, air and space, insanitary design and arrangement, or lack of proper sanitary facilities; that these conditions are chiefly in areas where low rent dwellings prevail and that such conditions and dwellings are a menace to the health, safety, morals, welfare and reasonable comfort of the citizens of this state; that there is not an adequate supply of adequate, safe, and sanitary dwelling accommodations for persons of low income; that these conditions cause an increase and spread of disease and crime and constitute a menace to the health, safety, morals, welfare, and comfort of the citizens of the state; that these conditions inflict blight upon the economic value of large areas, impair private investments and the source of public revenues; that these conditions cannot be remedied by the ordinary operation of private enterprise; that these conditions require that provision be made for the investment of public and private funds at low interest rates in low rent housing and the acquisition at fair prices of adequate parcels of property, the gradual demolition of existing insanitary and unsafe housing and the construction of new housing facilities, under public supervision in accord with proper standards of sanitation and safety and at a cost which will permit monthly rentals which persons of low income can afford to pay; that loans and subsidies by the state and its subdivisions are necessary for such purposes; that the clearance, replanning, reconstruction and rehabilitation of substandard and insanitary areas or the providing of adequate, safe and sanitary low rent housing accommodations in these areas and elsewhere for persons and families of low income, or both of these, are public uses and purposes for which public money may be spent and private property acquired; that these conditions require the creation of the agencies and instrumentalities hereinafter prescribed, which are declared to be agencies and instrumentalities of the state for the purpose of attaining the ends herein recited; and the necessity in the public interest for the provisions hereinafter enacted is hereby declared as a matter of legislative determination.
N.Y. Pub. Hous. Law § 2