Section 8-3-35. Legislative findings; additional powers of authority; effect of financing with bond proceeds; issuance, sale, confirmation, and validation of bonds; venue of actions

   (a) It is found and declared that from time to time there has existed and at the present time there exists an inadequate supply of funds at interest rates sufficiently low to enable the financing of safe and sanitary single and multifamily dwelling units for citizens of the state with low and moderate income; that the inability to finance such single and multifamily dwelling units results in an inability of builders to construct such housing, causing unemployment or underemployment in the housing construction and related businesses and causing a lack of safe and sanitary housing to be available to persons of low and moderate income; that such unemployment or underemployment in the housing construction and related businesses and an inadequate supply of safe and sanitary housing for persons of low and moderate income wastes human resources, increases the public assistance burden of the state, impairs the security of family life, impedes the economic and physical development of the state, adversely affects the welfare and prosperity of all of the people of the state, and accordingly creates and fosters conditions adverse to the general health and welfare of the citizens of the state; and that the making available in the manner provided in this Code section of a more adequate supply of funds at interest rates sufficiently low to enable the financing of safe and sanitary single and multifamily dwelling units for citizens of low and moderate income will result in the alleviation or reduction of the adverse consequences which have resulted and may result from continued unemployment and underemployment in the housing construction and related businesses and the inadequate supply of such housing for persons of low and moderate income.

(b) In addition to the powers otherwise granted in this article, any authority shall have the following powers:

   (1) To purchase mortgage loans or other forms of collateral and participations therein from mortgage lenders and other holders of such collateral and to make commitments therefor;

   (2) To contract with mortgage lenders for the origination of, or the servicing of, mortgage loans to be made by such mortgage lenders to finance eligible housing units within the authority's area of operation and the servicing of the mortgages securing such mortgage loans;

   (3) To make loans to mortgage lenders, provided that:

      (A) The proceeds of such loans shall be required to be used by such mortgage lenders for the making of mortgage loans to finance eligible housing units within the authority's area of operation; and

      (B) If required by the authority, the mortgages in connection with the mortgage loans so made, together with any additional security required by the authority, shall be mortgaged, pledged, assigned, or otherwise provided as security for such loans to mortgage lenders;

   (4) To issue bonds from time to time, in its discretion, to provide funds to purchase mortgage loans or other forms of collateral or participation interests therein from mortgage lenders and to make loans to mortgage lenders and to make direct loans for eligible housing units as authorized in this Code section and to issue refunding bonds for the purpose of refunding or retiring bonds previously issued by it for any such purpose, in accordance with the provisions of this article, which may include, but are not limited to, bonds on which the principal and the interest are payable:

      (A) Exclusively from the income and revenues of the authority from one or more specified mortgage loans or other forms of collateral or participation interests therein from one or more specific loans to mortgage lenders, regardless of whether such mortgage loans or other forms of collateral or participation interests therein were purchased or such loans to mortgage lenders were made from the proceeds of such bonds; or

      (B) From revenues of the authority generally that are not otherwise pledged or obligated;

   (5) To exercise any and all rights accorded to the owner and holder of a mortgage under and in accordance with the terms of said instrument and the applicable laws of the state with respect to the mortgaged property, directly or through mortgage lenders or others acting on behalf of the authority or on behalf of the holders of its bonds, including, but without limitation, the power to foreclose, to forbear enforcement of any remedy on such terms as the authority shall deem appropriate, to sell the equity of redemption, to purchase the equity of redemption, and otherwise to sell and dispose of the mortgaged property, all as shall seem in the best interest of the authority and the holders of its bonds; and

   (6) To mortgage, pledge, assign, or grant security interests in any or all of its mortgage loans or other collateral or participation interests therein, its mortgages, and any interest of the authority created thereby in the underlying real and personal properties covered by such mortgages as security for the payment of the principal of, and interest on, any bonds issued by the authority, or as security for any agreements made in connection therewith, whether then owned or thereafter acquired, and to pledge the revenues from which bonds are payable as security for the payment of the principal of and interest on said bonds and any agreements made in connection therewith.

(c) No eligible housing unit shall become subject to the provisions of Code Section 8-3-11 or Code Section 8-3-12 or entitled to the benefits of Code Section 8-3-8 solely by reason of having been financed, directly or indirectly, with proceeds of bonds issued by an authority for the purposes described in this Code section.

(d) Any bonds issued by an authority as permitted under the terms of this article which are issued for the purposes described in this Code section shall be issued in accordance with the provisions of this article, except that such bonds may be sold at any price which shall be approved by the authority and may be sold at public or private sale without any public advertisement.

(e) Bonds of an authority which are issued for the purposes described in this Code section shall be confirmed and validated in accordance with the procedures set forth in Article 3 of Chapter 82 of Title 36 known as the "Revenue Bond Law," and the judgment of validation shall have the same effect as is provided in said "Revenue Bond Law."

(f) Any action pertaining to issuance of bonds of an authority issued for the purposes described in this Code section, the rights of the holders thereof or the security therefor, and any action pertaining to the validation of any such bonds, shall be brought in the superior court of the county in which the eligible housing units to be financed with proceeds of such bonds are located, or if such eligible housing units shall be located in more than one county, in either the superior court of the county in which the authority is located or in the superior court of any county where any of such eligible housing units are situated.

Ga. L. 1982, p. 2228, § 2; Code 1981, § 8-3-35, enacted by Ga. L. 1982, p. 2228, § 5; Ga. L. 1983, p. 3, § 6; Ga. L. 1989, p. 14, § 8; Ga. L. 2008, p. 239, § 1/SB 397.