Section 26: Powers of a housing authority
Section 26. A housing authority shall have the following powers in addition to those set forth in section eleven or elsewhere in this chapter:—
(a) To make studies of housing needs and markets, including data with respect to population and family groups and their distribution according to income groups, the amount and quality of available housing and its distribution according to rentals and sales prices, employment, wages and other factors affecting housing needs and markets, and surveys and plans for housing related to community development, including desirable patterns for land use and community growth, and to make such studies, surveys and plans available to the federal government, the department and other state agencies, other operating agencies, the public and the building, housing and supply industries;
(b) To conduct investigations and disseminate information relative to housing and living conditions and any other matter deemed by it to be material in connection with any of its powers and duties;
(c) To determine what areas within its jurisdiction constitute substandard, decadent or blighted open areas;
(d) To prepare plans for the clearance of such decadent, substandard or blighted areas and to clear open areas whenever necessary or desirable to provide for the equivalent elimination of substandard buildings in accordance with section thirty-three provided that no housing authority in any city or town in which a redevelopment authority has been organized shall initiate such a clearance project without the approval of such redevelopment authority and the approval of the municipal officers of the city or town;
(e) To provide housing projects for families of low income;