This section lets certain contiguous counties create a regional housing authority by resolution, but only if specific findings are made and any required consents are obtained.
Sec. 392.013. CREATION OF A REGIONAL HOUSING AUTHORITY. (a) If the commissioners courts of two or more contiguous counties declare by resolution that there is a need for a housing authority to exercise the powers of a regional housing authority under this chapter in the counties, a regional housing authority is created for the counties. (b) A regional housing authority is a public body corporate and politic. (c) A commissioners court shall adopt a resolution declaring that there is a need for a regional housing authority only if the commissioners court finds that: (1) there is unsanitary or unsafe inhabited housing in the county or a shortage of safe or sanitary housing in the county available to persons of low income at rentals that they can afford; and (2) a regional housing authority would be a more efficient or economical administrative unit than a county housing authority to carry out the purposes of this chapter for the county. (d) In determining whether housing is unsafe or unsanitary, the commissioners court shall consider the safety and sanitation of the housing, the availability to inhabitants of light and air space, the degree of overcrowding, the size and arrangement of rooms, and the extent to which conditions in the housing subject life or property to the danger of fire or other hazard. (e) If a county housing authority has outstanding obligations, the commissioners court may not adopt a resolution declaring a need for a regional housing authority unless: (1) each obligee of the county housing authority and each party to a contract, bond, note, or other obligation of the authority agrees to the substitution of a regional housing authority on the contract, bond, note, or other obligation; and (2) the commissioners of the county housing authority adopt a resolution consenting to the transfer of the rights, contracts, obligations, and real and personal property of the county housing authority to a regional housing authority. (f) Before a resolution authorized by this section may be adopted, the commissioners court must hold a public hearing. Before the 10th day before the date of the hearing, the county clerk shall publish notice of the time, place, and purpose of the hearing in a newspaper published in the county or, if no newspaper is published in the county, in a newspaper published in the state with general circulation in the county. At the hearing, the commissioners court shall grant an opportunity to be heard to residents of the county and other interested persons. (g) In a proceeding involving the validity or enforcement of, or relating to, a contract of a regional housing authority, proof of an adoption of a resolution by the commissioners court of each county in the regional housing authority that declares that there is a need for the authority and makes the finding that the requirements of Subsection (c) exist is conclusive evidence that the regional housing authority is created and established as a public body corporate and politic that is authorized to transact business and exercise its powers under this chapter. A copy of the resolution of a commissioners court that is certified by the county clerk is admissible in evidence in the proceeding. (h) When a regional housing authority is created: (1) the rights, contracts, agreements, obligations, and property of the county housing authority become those of the regional housing authority; (2) the county housing authority shall execute a deed of the property to the regional housing authority, which shall file the deed with the county clerk of the county where the real property is located; and (3) a person with rights or remedies against the county housing authority may assert, enforce, and prosecute those rights or remedies against the regional housing authority. (i) The vesting of the real property in the regional housing authority is not contingent on compliance with the provisions of Subsection (h)(2). (j) At the time a regional housing authority is created, the county housing authority in a county for which the regional housing authority is created ceases to exist except for the purpose of winding up its affairs and executing the deed of its real property to the regional housing authority. Acts 1987, 70th Leg., ch. 149, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1987.