a. The council hereby finds that a serious public emergency continues to exist in the housing of a considerable number of persons in the city, which emergency was created by war, the effects of war and the aftermath of hostilities; that such emergency necessitated the intervention of federal, state and local government in order to prevent speculative, unwarranted and abnormal increases in rents; that there continues to exist an acute shortage of dwellings; that unless residential rents and evictions continue to be regulated and controlled, disruptive practices and abnormal conditions will produce serious threats to the public health, safety and general welfare; that to prevent such perils to health, safety and welfare, preventive action through enactment of local legislation by the council continues to be imperative; that such action, as a temporary measure to be effective until it is determined by the council that such emergency no longer exists, is necessary in order to prevent exactions of unjust, unreasonable and oppressive rents and rental agreements and to forestall profiteering, speculation and other disruptive practices tending to produce threats to the public health; that the transition from regulation to a normal market of free bargaining between landlord and tenant, while still the objective of state and city policy, must be administered with due regard for such emergency; that in order to prevent uncertainty, hardship and dislocation, the provisions of this chapter are declared to be necessary and designed to protect the public health, safety and general welfare.
b. The council further declares that it is city policy to utilize the powers conferred by this chapter, in a manner consistent with the purposes and provisions thereof, to encourage and promote the improvement and rehabilitation of the housing accommodations subject to control hereunder, for the purpose of protecting the public health, safety and general welfare.
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