HARRY HUGHES, Governor

861

SECTION 1. BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF
MARYLAND, That section(s) of the Annotated Code of Maryland
be repealed, amended, or enacted to read as follows:

Article 41 - Governor - Executive and Administrative

Departments

Residential Mortgage Program For [Code
Home Rule] CERTAIN Counties

266.

(a) The following legislative findings aremade are
made.

(1) As a result of the continuing increases in:
the cost of construction or rehabilitation, county taxes,
heating and electricity expenses, maintenance and repair
expenses, inflation, the cost of land, the cost of energy
conservation measures, and the levels of borrowing costs,
including interest, low and moderate income persons and
families in many areas within Allegany, Kent, WASHINGTON,
and Worcester counties, including areas which contain
presently stable neighborhoods and middle class residential
housing, are unable to purchase, rehabilitate, and maintain
decent, safe, and sanitary housing which provides an
opportunity for home ownership either directly or through a
condominium or cooperative form of ownership. The inability
of families to purchase and hold housing in the counties
results in the decline of new housing and in the decay of
existing housing and of existing neighborhoods with
attendant increases in costs for welfare, police and fire
protection. The decline in new housing construction,
together with the decay of existing housing, has produced a
critical shortage of adequate housing in the counties
adversely affecting the economy of the counties and the
well-being of [its] THEIR residents. Private enterprise
without the assistance of the residential mortgage program
contemplated by this section cannot achieve the construction
or rehabilitation of adequate housing for persons and
families of low or moderate income. The alternative of
forcing families to live in substandard housing is
undesirable since it tends to decrease the interest of
families in their communities, the maintenance of their
property, and the preservation of their neighborhoods. The
counties have a basic public interest in providing a
supplemental source of single-family residential mortgage
funds at a cost lower to the borrower than otherwise
prevailing for residential mortgages for low and moderate
income persons and families and a basic interest in
stimulating a steady flow of funds for residential housing
for low and moderate income persons and families and for low
and middle class residential housing in order to assist in
maintaining a well-balanced society, maintaining existing
housing, preserving established neighborhoods, and
maintaining a sound tax base.