On September 18, 1967, a petition of the Athens County Commissioners within the territorial limits of Athens County, Ohio was made to the Director of the Ohio Department of Development for the creation of a Metropolitan Housing Authority, declaring that unsanitary and unsafe inhabited housing accommodations exists in such areas and there is a shortage of safe and sanitary housing accommodations in such area available to persons who lack the amount of income which is necessary to enable them, without financial assistance, to live in decent, safe and sanitary dwellings without congestion.