The Legislature finds and declares that the rehabilitation of existing housing is necessary to the continued viability of neighborhoods, the elimination of health and safety hazards, the prevention of the overcrowding and the continued availability of a dwindling stock of low-cost housing. Economic conditions have not provided sufficient incentive to home improvement and elimination of substandard conditions, and financial assistance in the form of deferred-payment rehabilitation loans is necessary for those owners of residential real property who would otherwise be unable to obtain sufficient public or private financing to bring their properties into compliance with rehabilitation standards. Deferred-payment loans provide a means of financing rehabilitation which the owner could not otherwise afford. Such assistance is particularly necessary where local agencies are undertaking concentrated or systematic enforcement programs to require compliance with rehabilitation standards, and where persons or families of low or moderate income are affected.
(Amended by Stats. 1979, Ch. 1043.)