The following terms, wherever used or referred to in this Article shall have the following respective meanings, unless a different meaning clearly appears from the context:

(1) “Authority” or “housing authority” shall mean a public body and a body corporate and politic organized in accordance with the provisions of this Article for the purposes, with the powers and subject to the restrictions hereinafter set forth.

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(2) “Bonds” shall mean any bonds, interim certificates, notes, debentures, obligations, or other evidences of indebtedness issued pursuant to this Article.

(3) “City” shall mean any city or town having a population of more than 500 inhabitants according to the last federal census or any revision or amendment thereto.

(4) “City clerk” and “mayor” shall mean the clerk and mayor, respectively, of the city or the officers thereof charged with the duties customarily imposed on the clerk and mayor respectively.

(5) “Commissioner” shall mean one of the members of an authority  appointed in accordance with the provisions of this Article.

(6) “Community facilities” shall include real and personal property, and buildings and equipment for recreational or social assemblies, for educational, health or welfare purposes and necessary utilities, when designed primarily for the benefit and use of the housing authority and/or the occupants of the dwelling accommodation.

(7) “Contract” shall mean any agreement of an authority with or for the benefit of an obligee whether contained in a resolution, trust indenture, mortgage, lease, bond or other instrument.

(8) “Council” shall mean the legislative body, council, board of  commissioners, board of trustees, or other body charged with governing the city.

(9) “Farmers of low income” shall mean persons or families who at the time of their admission to occupancy in a dwelling of the authority:

a. Live under unsafe or unsanitary housing conditions;

b. Derive their principal income from operating or working upon a farm; and

c. Had an aggregate average annual net income for the three years preceding their admission that was less than the amount that shall be determined by the authority to be necessary, within its area of operation, to enable them, without financial assistance, to obtain decent, safe and sanitary housing, without overcrowding.

(10) “Federal government” shall include the United States of  America, the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works or any agency, instrumentality, corporate or otherwise, of the United States of America.

(11) “Government” shall include the State and federal governments and any subdivision, agency or instrumentality, corporate or otherwise, of either of them.

(12) “Housing project” shall include all real and personal property, buildings and improvements, stores, offices, lands for farming and gardening, and community facilities acquired or constructed or to be acquired or constructed pursuant to a single plan or undertaking:

a. To demolish, clear, remove, alter or repair unsanitary or unsafe housing; and/or

b. To provide safe and sanitary dwelling accommodations for persons of low income, or moderate income, or low and moderate income; and/or

c. To provide safe and sanitary housing for persons of low income, through payment of rent subsidies from any source; and/or

d. To provide grants, loans, interest supplements and other programs of financial assistance (including rent subsidies in furtherance of a program of home ownership) to persons of low income, or moderate income, or low and moderate income, so that such persons may become owners of their own housing or rehabilitate their own housing; and/or

e. To provide grants, loans, interest supplements and other programs of financial assistance to public or private developers of housing for persons of low income, or moderate income, or low and moderate income.

“Housing project” also includes any project that provides housing for persons of other than low or moderate income, as long as at least twenty percent (20%) of the units in the project are set aside for the exclusive use of persons of low income.

The term “housing project” may also be applied to the planning of the buildings and improvements, the acquisition of property, the demolition of existing structures, the construction, reconstruction, alteration and repair of the improvements and all other work in connection therewith.

(13) “Mortgage” shall include deeds of trust, mortgages, building and loan contracts or other instruments conveying real or personal property as security for bonds and conferring a right to foreclose and cause a sale thereof.

(14) “Municipality” shall mean any city, town, incorporated village or other municipality in the State.

(15) “Obligee of the authority” or “obligee” shall include any bondholder, trustee or trustees for any bondholders, any lessor demising property to the authority used in connection with a housing project or any assignee or assignees of such lessor’s interest or any part thereof, and the United States of America, when it is a party to any contract with the authority.

(15a) “Persons of low income” means persons in households the annual income of which, adjusted for family size, is not more than sixty percent (60%) of the local area median family income as defined by the most recent figures published by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

(15b) “Persons of moderate income” means persons deemed by the authority to require the assistance made available pursuant to this Chapter on account of insufficient personal or family income taking into consideration, without limitation, (i) the amount of the total income of such persons and families available for housing needs, (ii) the size of the person’s family, (iii) the cost and condition of housing facilities available, and (iv) the eligibility of such persons and families for federal housing assistance of any type predicated upon a moderate or low and moderate income basis.

(16) “Real property” shall include lands, lands under water, structures, and any and all easements, franchises and incorporeal hereditaments and every estate and right therein, legal and equitable, including terms for years and liens by way of judgment, mortgage or otherwise.

(17) “State” shall mean the State of North Carolina.

(18) “Trust indenture” shall include instruments pledging the revenues of real or personal properties but not conveying such properties or conferring a right to foreclose and cause a sale thereof. (1935, c. 456, s. 3; 1938, Ex. Sess., c. 2, s. 14; 1941, c. 78, s. 2; 1943, c. 636, s. 1; 1959, cc. 321, 641, 1281; 1961, c. 200, s. 1; 1977, c. 924; 1987, c. 464, ss. 2, 3.)