Sec. 16. (a) A housing authority may:
(1) prepare, carry out, acquire, lease, and operate housing projects; and
(2) provide for the construction, reconstruction, improvement, alteration, or repair of all or part of a housing project.
(b) Notwithstanding subsection (a), a housing project may not be built if the average construction cost, exclusive of the cost of land, demolition, and nondwelling facilities, is more than:
(1) two thousand dollars ($2,000) per room;
(2) ten thousand dollars ($10,000) per room, if the accommodations are designed specifically for persons of low income who:
(A) have attained the age at which they may elect to receive old age benefits under Title 2 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 401-433); or
(B) are under disability (as defined in Section 223 of that Act (42 U.S.C. 423)); or
(3) any greater amount established by the federal government as the basis for computing any of its annual contributions.
(c) Notwithstanding subsection (b), if the housing authority finds that:
(1) compliance with the cost limitations in subsection (b) would require the sacrifice of sound standards of construction, design, and livability in a project; and
(2) there is an acute need for the proposed housing;
it may exceed the cost limitation that would otherwise be applicable under subsection (b) by not more than seven hundred fifty dollars ($750) per room.