Any housing authority now or hereafter organized under the “Housing Authorities Act,” approved March 19, 1934, as amended, and any Land Clearance Commission heretofore organized under the Act herein repealed or organized prior to the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 102nd General Assembly under the provisions of the Blighted Areas Redevelopment Act of 1947 (repealed) may make application to the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity for a grant of state funds from the appropriation designated for the making of grants under this Act. No such housing authority or Land Clearance Commission shall apply for a sum larger than the proportion of the population of its area of operation to the population of the State, and where an authority and Land Clearance Commission have been created by the governing body of the same municipality, an amount not in excess of one-half (1/2) of the maximum grant allocable for such municipality on the foregoing basis of proportion of population may be allocated to the housing authority and an amount not in excess of one-half (1/2) of the maximum grant so allocable for such municipality may be allocated to the Land Clearance Commission.
     The foregoing provisions of this Section in respect to maximum allocable grants to housing authorities and land clearance commissions from funds appropriated by the 66th or any succeeding General Assembly, and applications therefor, shall be subject to the provisions of Section 3a of this Act.