§ 45-25-15. Powers of authority enumerated.
(a) An authority constitutes a public body and a body corporate and politic, exercising
public powers, and has all the powers necessary or convenient to carry out and effectuate
the purposes and provisions of chapters 25 — 27 of this title, including the following
powers in addition to others granted in this chapter:
(1) To investigate into living, dwelling, and housing conditions and into the means and
methods of improving these conditions;
(2) To determine where unsafe, or unsanitary dwelling or housing conditions exist;
(3) To study and make recommendations concerning the plan of any city or municipality
located within its boundaries in relation to the problem of clearing, replanning,
and reconstruction of areas in which unsafe, or unsanitary dwelling or housing conditions
exist, and the providing of dwelling accommodations for persons of low income, and
to cooperate with any city, municipal or regional planning agency;
(4) To prepare, carry out, and operate housing projects;
(5) To provide for the construction, reconstruction, improvement, alteration, or repair
of any housing project or any part of it;
(6) To take over by purchase, lease, or otherwise, any housing project located within
its boundaries undertaken by any government, or by any city or municipality located
in whole or in part within its boundaries;
(7) To manage as agent of any city or municipality any housing project located in whole
or in part within its boundaries;
(8) To act as agent for the federal government in connection with the acquisition, construction,
operation, and/or management of a housing project or any part of it;
(9) To arrange with any city or municipality located in whole or in part within its boundaries
or with a government for the furnishing, planning, replanning, installing, opening
or closing of streets, roads, roadways, alleys, sidewalks, or other places or facilities
or for the acquisition by the city, municipality, or, a government of property, options,
or property rights, or for the furnishing of property or services in connection with
a project;
(10) To arrange with the state, its subdivisions and agencies, and any county, city, town,
or municipality of the state, to the extent that it is within the scope of each of
their respective functions, (i) to cause the services customarily provided by each
of them to be rendered for the benefit of the housing authority and/or the occupants
of any housing projects, (ii) to provide and maintain parks and sewage, water, and
other facilities adjacent to or in connection with housing projects, and (iii) to
change the city or municipality map, to plan, replan, zone, or rezone any part of
the city or municipality;
(11) To lease or rent any of the dwelling or other accommodations or any of the lands,
buildings, structures, or facilities embraced in any housing project and to establish
and revise the rents or charges for the project; to enter upon any building or property
in order to conduct investigations or to make surveys or soundings;
(12) To purchase, lease, obtain options upon, acquire by gift, grant, bequest, devise,
or otherwise any property real or personal or any interest therein from any person,
firm, corporation, city, municipality, or government;
(13) To acquire any real property, including improvements and fixtures to this property;
to sell, exchange, transfer, assign, or pledge any property real or personal or any
interest to this property to any person, firm, corporation, municipality, city, or
government;
(14) To own, hold, clear, and improve property;
(15) To insure or provide for the insurance of the property or operations of the authority
against risks as the authority may deem advisable;
(16) To procure insurance or guaranties from the federal government of the payment of any
debts or parts of debts secured by mortgages made or held by the authority on any
property included in any housing project;
(17) To borrow money upon its bonds, notes, debentures, or other evidences of indebtedness,
and to secure them by pledges of its revenues, and (subject to the limitations imposed
by this section) by mortgages upon property held or to be held by it, or in any other
manner;
(18) In connection with any loan, to agree to limitations upon its right to dispose of
any housing project or part of a project or to undertake additional housing projects;
(19) In connection with any loan by a government, to agree to limitations upon the exercise
of any powers conferred upon the authority by this chapter;
(20) To invest any funds held in reserves or sinking funds, or any funds not required for
immediate disbursements, in property or securities in which savings banks may legally
invest funds subject to their control; to sue and be sued;
(21) To have a seal and to alter that seal at pleasure; to have perpetual succession;
(22) To make and execute contracts and other instruments necessary or convenient to the
exercise of the powers of the authority;
(23) To make and, from time to time, amend and repeal bylaws, rules, and regulations not
inconsistent with this chapter, and to carry into effect the powers and purposes of
the authority;
(24) To conduct examinations and investigations, and to hear testimony and take proof under
oath at public or private hearings on any matter material for its information;
(25) To issue subpoenas requiring the attendance of witnesses or the production of books
and papers and to issue commissions for the examination of witnesses who are out of
the state or unable to attend before the authority, or excused from attendance;
(26) To make available to those agencies, boards or commissions as are charged with the
duty of abating or requiring the correction of nuisances or like conditions, or of
demolishing unsafe or unsanitary structures within its territorial limits, its findings
and recommendations with regard to any building or property where conditions exist
which are dangerous to the public health, morals, safety, or welfare; and
(27) To request and receive from the various state and federal departments and agencies
income information relating to unemployment compensation, child support, alimony,
supplemental nutritional assistance and public welfare payments to be held in strict
confidentiality by the authority and shared as part of the process established with
the federal department of housing and urban development's earned income information
system in cooperation with other federal and state agencies for the purpose of determining
the current income of any applicant regarding rental calculations.
(b) Any of the investigations or examinations provided for in this chapter may be conducted
by the authority or by a committee appointed by it, consisting of one or more commissioners,
or by counsel, or by an officer or employee specially authorized by the authority,
to conduct it. Any commissioner, counsel for the authority, or any person designated
by it to conduct an investigation or examination has power to administer oaths, take
affidavits, and issue subpoenas or commissions. An authority may exercise any or all
the powers conferred upon it, either generally or with respect to any specific housing
project or projects, through or by an agent or agents which it may designate, including
any corporation or corporations which are or shall be formed under the laws of this
state, and, for these purposes, an authority may cause one or more corporations to
be formed under the laws of this state or may acquire the capital stock of any corporation
or corporations. Any corporate agent, all of the stock of which is owned by the authority
or its nominee or nominees, may, to the extent permitted by law exercise any of the
powers conferred upon the authority. In addition to all of the other powers conferred
upon it, an authority may do all things necessary and convenient to carry out the
powers expressly given in chapters 25 and 27 of this title. No provisions with respect
to the acquisition, operation, or disposition of property by other public bodies are
applicable to an authority unless stated specifically by the legislature.