(a) A housing authority or an urban renewal agency shall have all the powers necessary or convenient to undertake and carry out urban renewal plans and urban renewal projects, including the authority to acquire and dispose of property, to issue bonds and other obligations, to borrow and accept grants from the United States Government or other source, and to exercise the other powers which § 14-169-601 et seq. confers on an authority with respect to redevelopment projects.

(b)

(1) In connection with the planning and undertaking of any urban renewal plan or urban renewal project, the urban renewal agency, the housing authority, the municipality, and all public and private officers, agencies, and bodies shall have all the rights, powers, privileges, and immunities that each has with respect to a redevelopment plan or redevelopment project under § 14-169-601 et seq.

(2) (A) For such purposes:

(i) The word "redevelopment" as used in this subchapter, except in this section and in the definition of "redevelopment project" in § 14-169-604, shall mean "urban renewal";

(ii) The word "slum" and the word "blighted" as used in this subchapter, except in this section and in the definitions in § 14-169-604, shall mean "blighted, deteriorated, or deteriorating"; and

(iii) The finding prescribed in § 14-169-604 with respect to a blighted area shall not be required.

(B) Any disaster area referred to in § 14-169-703 shall constitute a "blighted area," and this subsection shall not change the corporate name of the authority or the short title of Acts 1945, No. 212, or amend any section of it.

(c) In addition to the surveys and plans which an authority is otherwise authorized to make, an authority is specifically authorized to make:

(1) Plans for carrying out a program of voluntary repair and rehabilitation of buildings and improvements;

(2) Plans for the enforcement of laws, codes, and regulations relating to the use of land and the use and occupancy of buildings and improvements, and to the compulsory repair, rehabilitation, demolition, or removal of buildings and improvements;

(3) Plans for the relocation of persons, including families, business concerns, and others displaced by an urban renewal project;

(4) Preliminary plans outlining urban renewal activities for neighborhoods to embrace two (2) or more urban renewal areas; and

(5) Preliminary surveys to determine if the undertaking and carrying out of an urban renewal project are feasible.

(d)

(1) The authority is authorized to make relocation payments to, or with respect to, persons including families, business concerns, and others displaced by an urban renewal project, for moving expenses and losses of property for which reimbursement or compensation is not otherwise made, including the making of such payments financed by the federal government.

(2) The authority is also authorized to develop, test, and report methods and techniques, and carry out demonstrations and other activities for the prevention and the elimination of slums and urban blight.