The Legislature finds and declares that a number of federal housing programs have failed to reach the fundamental goals and purposes for which they were established, especially in urban areas. In California, this failure has often been related to inadequate consideration of the relationship between housing and the community in which the housing is located.
It is the intent of the Legislature in enacting this division to seek to avoid such failures by providing a comprehensive and balanced approach to the solution of housing problems of very low income households and persons and families of low or moderate income in the state. It is further the intent of the Legislature to provide a program which gives consideration, not only to the production and financing of housing, but also to the social and aesthetic impact of such housing. A California housing program must consider the distribution throughout the state of such housing as may be assisted pursuant to this division, the avoidance of imposed economic, ethnic, and racial isolation or concentration, an emphasis on superior design, including the scale and location of such housing, the preparation of communities and persons to avail themselves of the program, and other factors which contribute to a decent living environment. Such program shall be designed to overcome racial isolation and concentration through revitalization of deteriorating and deteriorated urban areas by attracting a full range of income groups to central-city areas to provide economic integration with persons and families of low or moderate income in such areas.