interim assistance for blighted areas

interim assistance for blighted areas Sec. 514. Title I of the Housing Act of 1949 is amended by adding after section 117 a new section as follows: “interim assistance for blighted areas “Sec. 118. Notwithstanding any other provision of this title, the Secretary is authorized to enter into contracts (in an aggregate amount not to exceed $15,000,000 in any fiscal year) to make, and to make, grants as provided in this section (payable from any grant funds provided under section 103(b)) to cities, other municipalities, and counties for the purpose of assisting such localities in carrying our programs to alleviate harmful conditions in slum and blighted areas which are planned for substantial clearance, rehabilitation, or federally assisted code enforcement in the near future but in which some immediate public action is needed until clearance, rehabilitation, or code enforcement activities can be undertaken. Such grants shall not exceed two-thirds (or three-fourths in the case of any city, other municipality, or county having a population of fifty thousand or less according to the most recent decennial census) of the cost of planning and carrying out programs which may include (1) the repair of streets, sidewalks, parks, playgrounds, publicly owned utilities, and public buildings to meet needs consistent with the short-term continued use of the area prior to the undertaking of the contemplated clearance or upgrading activities, (2) the improvement of private properties to the extent needed to eliminate the most immediate dangers to public health and safety, (3) the demolition of structures determined to be structural unsound or unfit for human habitation and which constitute a public nuisance and serious hazard to the public health and safety, (4) the establishment of temporary public playgrounds on vacant land within the area, and (5) the improvement of garbage and trash collection, street cleaning, and similar activities. The Secretary shall encourage, wherever feasible, the employment of otherwise unemployed or underemployed residents of the area in carrying out the activities and undertakings assisted under this section. The provisions of sections 101(c), 106, and 114 shall be applicable to activities and undertakings assisted under this section to the same extent as if such activities and undertakings were being earned out hi an urban renewal area as part of an urban renewal project.”