§ 8-3-17 — Dormitories

(a) The great increase in population in the State of Georgia which has taken place in recent years has created a serious shortage in dormitory housing accommodations at the various units of the University System of Georgia, causing overcrowded and congested conditions which are unsafe and undesirable and seriously impair the proper operation of such institutions. In addition, at some institutions now in operation or in the process of construction, there is a total lack of dormitory housing accommodations. This situation constitutes an emergency; and it is imperative that provisions be made to alleviate the overcrowded, congested, and unsafe accommodations and to supply accommodations where the same are now nonexistent by the construction of dormitory facilities or additional facilities for such institutions so as to make adequate, safe, and uncongested dormitory housing available for students enrolled at such institutions. (b) Any housing authority now or hereafter established may undertake the construction, acquisition, remodeling, and improvement of, the addition to, and the maintenance and operation of projects to provide dormitory housing at any unit of the University System of Georgia located within its area of operation so as to provide housing for students enrolled at such institution, if the authority finds and determines that an acute shortage of housing for such persons exists or impends in its area of operation or any part thereof, and that necessary and adequate housing would not otherwise be provided when needed. In the ownership, development, or administration of dormitory housing projects, a housing authority shall have all the rights, powers, privileges, and immunities that it may now or hereafter have under any provision of law relating to the ownership, development, and administration of low rent housing and slum clearance projects or any other projects it is now or hereafter authorized to undertake, in the same manner as though all laws applicable thereto were applicable to dormitory housing projects. Such rights shall include specifically, but without limitation, the right to issue bonds from time to time, in the authority's discretion, in order to provide funds to pay the cost, in whole or in part, of constructing, acquiring, remodeling, improving, and adding to any dormitory housing project; and the right to issue refunding bonds for the purpose of refunding or retiring bonds previously issued by the authority for any such project. Such bonds may be of such type as the housing authority may determine, including bonds on which the principal and interest are payable: (1) Exclusively from the income and revenues of the dormitory project financed in whole or in part from the proceeds of such bonds, or with such proceeds together with a grant from the federal government or the State of Georgia, or from any other source in aid of such project; (2) Exclusively from the income and revenues of certain designated projects of the authority, including projects other than dormitory housing projects of the authority even though the same were not financed in whole or in part with the proceeds of the bonds; or (3) From its revenues generally that are not otherwise pledged or obligated. Any of such bonds may be additionally secured by a pledge of any revenues of any project or projects or other properties of the authority. A housing authority may, notwithstanding the provisions of any other law, make and agree to make with respect to any dormitory housing project owned and administered by it under this article such payments as may be agreed upon for facilities and services furnished to such dormitory housing project by the city, county, or other political subdivision of the state in which such dormitory housing project is located, or by the unit of the University System of Georgia which such dormitory housing project serves. In the operation of such dormitory housing projects the housing authority owning and administering the same shall not be subject to the limitations provided in Code Section 8-3-12 , in the second sentence of Code Section 8-3-11 , and in Code Section 8-3-74 . (c) A housing authority may exercise any or all of its powers to aid or cooperate with the state and federal governments in making dormitory housing available at units of the University System of Georgia, may act as agent for the state or federal governments in developing and administering dormitory housing projects undertaken by either of them, and may lease such dormitory housing projects from either of them. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, authority is also specifically granted to the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, for and on behalf of the units and institutions under its control, and any housing authority to enter into leases of any such project or projects for a term of not exceeding 50 years; and the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, for and on behalf of any unit or institution or combination of units or institutions, may obligate itself to pay an agreed sum for the use of such property so leased and also to obligate itself, as a part of the lease contract, to pay the cost of maintaining, repairing, and operating the property so leased from the authority, and may arrange with public bodies and private agencies for such services and facilities as may be necessary or desirable for such dormitory housing projects. (d) Any other law to the contrary notwithstanding, if the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia and a housing authority determine it expedient to construct any dormitory housing project on any lands, title to which is held by any unit or institution under the control of the board of regents, the board is authorized to execute a lease upon such lands, whether improved or unimproved, to the authority for such parcel or parcels as shall be needed for a period of not to exceed 50 years at such annual rental, which may be purely nominal, as the board and the housing authority may agree upon, provided that, at the expiration of such term, title to said land and all improvements thereon shall revert to and vest in such unit or institution under the control of said board. The board of regents shall also have the right, any other law to the contrary notwithstanding, should it determine with the housing authority that it is necessary and desirable to do so, to convey, by a deed executed by the chairman of the board of regents upon resolution of said board, for such consideration as may be agreed upon (which consideration may be nominal), to a housing authority for a dormitory housing project title to any land, whether improved or unimproved, owned by any unit or institution under its control which is to be served by such dormitory housing project, including land to which the regents of the University System of Georgia hold title, provided that title to such land and all improvements thereon shall revert or be reconveyed by the housing authority to such unit or institution when all bonds, and the interest thereon, which were issued by the housing authority to finance such construction, or bonds issued to refinance such obligations, or to finance in whole or in part any additions or improvements thereto, have been paid in full. (e) Any action to protect or enforce any right in connection with the construction, acquisition, ownership, maintenance, alteration, expansion, improvement, or operation of dormitory housing projects, or involving any question in connection with the issuance of bonds to finance any such undertaking, or with the rights of the holders thereof or the security therefor, shall be brought in the superior court of the county in which the dormitory housing project is located. Any action pertaining to the validation of any bonds issued to finance in whole or in part the cost of any such dormitory housing project or any refunding bonds shall likewise be brought in said court, which shall have exclusive, original jurisdiction of such actions. (f) Bonds of the authority issued to finance in whole or in part the cost of any dormitory housing project and any refunding bonds shall be confirmed and validated in accordance with the procedure set forth in Article 3 of Chapter 82 of Title 36, the "Revenue Bond Law," and the judgment of validation shall have the same effect as is provided in that chapter.