It is hereby found and declared that there exists within the county a critical shortage of decent, safe and sanitary dwelling accommodations available either to rent or purchase which persons of eligible income can afford and that, as a result, such persons are forced to occupy overcrowded and congested dwelling accommodations, or are required to pay an inordinate share of their income for shelter; that the aforesaid conditions necessitate excessive and disproportionate expenditures of public funds for public health and safety, fire and accident protection, and other public services and facilities; that the shortage of decent, safe and sanitary dwellings cannot wholly be relieved through the operation of private enterprise; and that the construction of opportunity housing for persons of eligible income, and/or the expenditure of public funds to assist in securing the production of such opportunity housing are, therefore, not competitive with private enterprise; and that the necessity for such construction and the expenditure of public funds in the public interest, for the provisions hereinafter enacted, are hereby declared as a matter of legislative determination to be valid public purposes. (1974 L.M.C., ch. 41, § 1.)