V.I. Code tit. 29, § 1 (2019)
2019 US Virgin Islands Code|Title 29 - Public Planning and Development|Chapter 1 - Community Development and Renewal; Slum Clearance and Housing|Subchapter I - Declaration of Findings and Policy and Definitions|§ 1. Declaration of findings and policy

 (a) The Declaration of Housing Policy contained in the Housing Act of 1949 (Public Law 171, 81st Cong. 1st sess.), as amended, and its goals of a decent home and a suitable living environment for every American family expresses the sense of this Legislature and its concern with the public welfare and the economic health of our nation and of the Virgin Islands. (b) There exist in the Virgin Islands slum and blighted areas (as defined in this chapter), as well as substandard and inadequate housing conditions and a serious shortage of safe, sanitary and decent dwelling accommodations, in urban and rural areas, at rentals or prices which families of low income can afford to pay. (c) These slum and blight conditions, and the continuing shortage of decent housing for low-income families present problems of immediate and long-range governmental concern including low and falling property values; a constant threat of growth, choking off the orderly improvement and development of communities; the loss of property tax revenues; failure of community responsibility to itself and to its citizens; a danger to the endeavor of the Virgin Islands to develop industrial activity and to grow as a tourist attraction; continued crowding of low-income families into unsafe, insanitary, unhealthy dwellings and slum pockets; continued excessive expenditures for health protection and fire and crime control, all of which to the Virgin Islands, with its historic striving for the improvement of its people's lot, are intolerable. (d) That certain slum or blighted areas, or portions thereof, may require acquisition, clearance, and disposition subject to use restrictions, as provided in this chapter, since the prevailing condition of decay may make impracticable the reclamation of the areas by conservation or rehabilitation; that other areas or portions thereof may, through the means provided in this chapter, be susceptible of conservation or rehabilitation in such a manner that the conditions and evils hereinbefore enumerated may be eliminated, remedied or prevented; and that to the extent feasible salvable slum and blighted areas can be conserved and rehabilitated through appropriate public action and the cooperation and voluntary action of the owners and tenants of property in such areas. (e) The situation hereinabove enumerated can be corrected because the Virgin Islands, as a part of the United States, may share in the vast resources and the united effort of the nation. (f) These problems must be attacked by prompt and vigorous action in the interests of public safety, health and welfare. (g) The elimination and prevention of slums and blighted areas, the planning, undertaking and carrying out of urban renewal projects, and the provision of safe, sanitary and decent housing for low-income families in the Virgin Islands, and during periods of acute need for disaster victims and persons engaged in national defense activities, constitute public uses and public purposes, not competitive with private enterprise, are proper governmental functions, devoted to the health, welfare and safety of the people of the Virgin Islands, and that the powers conferred by this chapter are for public uses and purposes for which public money may be expended and private property may be acquired, by eminent domain or otherwise. (h) The necessity in the public interest for the provisions enacted in this chapter is a matter of legislative determination. (i) The Virgin Islands joins in the national policy to promote the health, safety and welfare of its people by the elimination of slum and blight conditions, by the orderly redevelopment and renewal of communities, by proper planning of community development and by provision of safe, decent and sanitary dwellings for low-income families, through all available Federal and local governmental programs and through encouragement of private enterprise to participate in the common task of community improvement.