42 U.S.C. § 4502 — Congressional findings and declaration of policy

(a) Congress finds that rapid changes in urban settlement, population, and economic bases have created an imbalance between national needs and resources, threatening the physical and social environment and city finances. National economic and social development, resource and energy conservation, and satisfactory living standards depend on sound, orderly, balanced development everywhere. (b) Federal programs affect population location, economic growth, and urban character, but often conflict, causing costly, environmentally harmful development and wasteful energy and resource use. Existing and future programs must be coordinated in an orderly system with priorities consistent with national urban policy. (c) To promote welfare and use Federal resources to strengthen every area and protect the environment and conserve energy and resources, the Federal Government, consistent with State^*, local, and private responsibilities, must develop a national urban policy incorporating social, economic, and other appropriate factors. It guides national decisions affecting urban growth and redevelopment and provides a framework for interstate, State, and local policy. (d) The policy should: (1) support urbanization and economic development patterns offering location choices and balanced use of resources in metropolitan, urban, and smaller fast-growing places; (2) preserve economic strength in central cities, suburbs, smaller communities, neighborhoods, and rural areas; (3) reduce disparities among States, regions, and cities; (4) address poverty and employment, eroding tax bases, community services, and jobs linked to disorderly urbanization and rural decline; (5) encourage good housing for all without regard to race or creed; (6) clarify the Federal role in renewing communities and planned large-scale urban and new-community development; (7) strengthen government institutions' ability to support balanced growth; and (8) coordinate Federal programs for jobs and skills, affordable housing, public safety, health care, education, and urban fiscal soundness.