Chap. 375.—An ACT to authorize housing authorities to undertake the development
or administration of projects to assure the availibility of safe and sanitary dwell-
ings for persons engaged in national-defense activities who would not otherwise
be able to secure such dwellings within the vicinity thereof ; to limit the initiation
of the development of such projects until December 31, 1944; to authorize
housing authorities to cooperate with or act as agent of the Federal Government
in the development and administration of such projects of the Federal Govern-
ment, to acquire or lease such projects and to sell certain projects to the Federal
Government; to authorize public bodies to assist such projects of housing au-
thorities and of the Federal Government; to make obligations issued for such
projects of housing authorities legal investments and security for deposits; and
to declare valid all obligations of housing authorities, heretofore issued for such
projects. [S B 160]

Approved April 1, 1942 |

1. Beit enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, as follows:

Section 1. Finding and Declaration of Necessity.—It is hereby
found and declared that the national-defense program involves large
increases in the military forces and personnel in this Commonwealth, a
great increase in the number of workers in already established manufac-
turing centers and the bringing of a large number of workers and their
families to new centers of defense industries in the Commonwealth; that
there is an acute shortage of safe and sanitary dwellings available to such
persons and their families which impedes the national-defense program ;
that it is imperative that action be taken immediately to assure the avail-
ability of safe and sanitary dwellings for such persons to enable the
rapid expansion of national-defense activities in this Commonwealth
and to avoid a large labor turnover in defense industries which would
seriously hamper their production; that the provisions hereinafter en-
acted are necessary to assure the availability of safe and sanitary dwell-
ings for persons engaged in national-defense activities which otherwise
would not be provided at this time; and that such provisions are for the
public use and purpose of facilitating the national-defense program. It
is further declared to be the purpose of this act to authorize housing
authorities to do any and all things necessary or desirable to secure the
financial aid of the Federal Government, or to cooperate with or act as
agent of the Federal Government, in the expeditious development and
the administration of projects to assure the availability when needed of
safe and sanitary dwellings for persons engaged in national-defense
activities.

Section 2. Defense Housing by Housing Authorities—Any hous-
ing authority may undertake the development or administration, or both,
of projects to assure the availability of safe and sanitary dwellings for
persons engaged in national-defense activities whom the housing author-
ity determines would not otherwise be able to secure safe and sanitary
dwellings within the vicinity thereof, but no housing authority shall
initiate the development of any such project pursuant to this Act after
December thirty-first, nineteen hundred and forty-four.

In the ownership, development or administration of such projects, a
housing authority shall have all the rights, powers, privileges and immuni-
ties that such authority has under any provision of law relating to the
ownership, development or administration of slum clearance and housing
projects for persons of low income, in the same manner as though all the
provisions of law applicable to slum clearance and housing projects for
persons of low income were applicable to projects developed or admin-
istered to assure the availability of safe and sanitary dwellings for persons
engaged in national-defense activities as provided in this Act; provided,
that during the period (herein called the “National-Defense Period”’)
that a housing authority finds (which finding shall be conclusive in any
suit, action or proceeding) that within its area of operation, or any part
thereof, there is an acute shortage of safe and sanitary dwellings which
impedes the national-defense program in this Commonwealth and that
the necessary safe and sanitary dwellings would not otherwise be pro-
vided when needed for persons engaged in national-defense activities,
any project developed or administered by such housing authority (or by
any housing authority cooperating with it) in such area, with the finan-
cial aid of the Federal Government (or as agent for the Federal Govern-
ment as hereinafter provided), shall not be subject to the limitations
provided in section ten and the second sentence of section nine of the
Housing Authorities Law; and provided further, that, during the Na-
tional-Defense Period, a housing authority may make payments in such
amounts as it finds necessary or desirable for any services, facilities,
works, privileges or improvements furnished for or in connection with
any such project. In the development or the administration of projects
hereunder or in otherwise carrying out the purposes hereof, any housing
authority of any city, town or county may exercise its powers within the
territorial boundaries of such city, town or county, and in any area within
ten milés from said boundaries, with the approval of the governing body
of the area affected thereby, exclusive of any area within the territorial
boundaries of any other city, town or county in which there is a housing
authority. After the National-Defense Period, any such projects owned
and administered by a housing authority shall be administered for the
purposes and in accordance with the provisions of the Housing Authori-
ties Law, except as otherwise provided in the preceding sentence of this
section two. This Act shall constitute an independent authorization for a
housing authority to undertake the development or administration of
projects to assure the availability of safe and sanitary dwellings for
persons engaged in national defense activities as provided in this Act
and for a housing authority to cooperate with, or act as agent for, the
Federal Government in the development or administration of similar
projects by the Federal Government.

Section 3. Acting for Federal Government on Defense Housing. —
A housing authority may exercise any or all of its powers for the purpose
of cooperating with, or acting as agent for, the Federal Government in
the development or administration of projects by the Federal Govern-
ment to assure the availabilty of safe and sanitary dwellings for persons
engaged in national-defense activities and may undertake the develop-
ment or administration of any such project for the Federal Government.
In order to assure the availability of safe and sanitary housing for per-
sons engaged in national-defense activities, a housing authority may sell
(in whole or in part) to the Federal Government any housing project (or
part thereof) developed for persons of low income but not yet occupied
by such persons; such sale shall be at such price and upon such terms as
the housing authority shall prescribe and shall include provision for the
satisfaction of all debts and liabilities of the authority relating to such
project.

Section 4. Cooperation by Public Bodies on Defense Housing —
Any public body of the Commonwealth, as defined in the Housing Au-
thorities Law, shall have the same rights and powers to cooperate with
housing authorities, or with the Federal Government, with respect to the
development or administration of projects to assure the availability of
safe and sanitary dwellings for persons engaged in national-defense
activities that such public body has pursuant to such law for the purpose
of assisting the development or administration of slum clearance or
housing projects for persons of low income; provided that any such
public body may furnish the aforesaid cooperation to such projects
located within the territorial boundaries of such public body.

Section 5. Bonds for Defense Housing Legal Investments.—Bonds
or other obligations issued by a housing authority for a project developed
or administered pursuant to this Act shall be security for public deposits
and legal investments to the same extent and for the same persons,
institutions, associations, corporations, bodies and officers as bonds or
other obligations issued pursuant to the Housing Authorities Law for
the development of a slum clearance or housing project for persons of
low income.

Section 6. Planning, Zoning and Building Laws.—In the develop-
ment of all housing projects of an authority such projects shall be subject
to the planning, zoning, sanitary and building laws, ordinances and regu-
lations applicable to the locality in which the housing project is situated,
unless waived by the proper authorities of the local government having
the administration of such laws, ordinances and regulations.
Section 7. Defense Housing Contracts Validated—AIl bonds,
notes, contracts, agreements and obligations of housing authorities here-
tofore issued or entered into relating to financing or undertaking (includ-
ing cooperating with or acting as agent of the Federal Government in)
the development or administration of any project to assure the availa-
bility of safe and sanitary dwellings for persons engaged in national-
defense activities, are hereby validated and declared legal in all respects,
notwithstanding any defect or irregularity therein or any want of statu-
tory authority.

Section 8. Definitions—(a) “Persons engaged in national-de-
fense activities’, as used in this Act, shall include (without limiting the
generality thereof) enlisted men in the military and naval services of the
United States and employees of the War and Navy Departments assigned
to duty at military or naval reservations, posts or bases; and workers
engaged or to be engaged in industries connected with and essential to
the national-defense program; and shall include the families of the
aforesaid persons who are living with them.

(b) “Persons of low income’, as used in this Act, shall mean
persons or families who lack the amount of income which is necessary
(as determined by the housing authority undertaking the housing project)
to enable them, without financial assistance, to live in decent, safe and
sanitary dwellings, without overcrowding.

(c) “Development”, as used in this Act, shall mean any and all
undertakings necessary for the planning, land acquisition, demolition,
financing, construction or equipment in connection with the project (in-
cluding the negotiation or award of contracts therefor), and shall include
the acquisition of any project (in whole or in part) from the Federal
Government.

(d) “Administration”, as used in this Act, shall mean any and all
undertakings necessary for management, operation or maintenance, in
connection with any project, and shall include the leasing of any project
(in whole or in part) from the Federal Government.

(e) “Federal Government”, as used in this Act, shall mean the
United States of America or any agency or instrumentality, corporate
or otherwise, of the United States of America.

({) The development of a project shall be deemed to be “initiated”,
within the meaning of this Act, if a housing authority has issued any
bonds, notes or other obligations with respect to financing the develop-
ment of such project of the authority, or has contracted with the Federal
Government with respect to the exercise of powers hereunder in the
development of such project of the Federal Government for which an
allocation of funds has been made prior to December thirty-first, nineteen
hundred and forty-four.

(g) “Housing Authority’, as used in this Act, shall mean any
housing authority established or hereafter established pursuant to the
Housing Authorities Law.

h) “Housing Authorities Law’, as used in this Act, shall mean
Chapter three hundred and ten, Acts of the General Assembly of nine-
teen hundred and thirty-eight, and any amendments thereto.
574 ACTS OF ASSEMBLY [va., 1942

Section 9. Act Supplemental—The powers conferred by this Act
shall be in addition and supplemental to the powers conferred by any
other law, and nothing contained herein shall be construed as limiting
any other powers of a housing authority.

Section 10. Severability—Notwithstanding any other evidence of
legislative intent it is hereby declared to be the controlling legislative
intent that if any provision of this Act, or the application thereof to any
persons or circumstances, is held invalid, the remainder of the Act and
the application of such provision to persons or circumstances other than
those as to which it is held invalid, shall not be affected thereby.

Section 11. An emergency existing, this Act shall be in force from
its passage.