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on a neighborhood basis. Congress further emphasized the importance of this new approach by including Section 301 in the Housing Act of 1964. This required all cities engaged in urban renewal to have comprehensive area inspection programs in operation by March 1967, and thereafter, in order to remain eligible for national renewal funds. B. Neighborhood Inspection Technique The area or neighborhood inspection technique is a more recent type of inspection and one which begins to face up to the problems of saving neighborhoods from urban blight. While this is a step forward, it is merely one of several steps required if urban blight and its associated human suffering are to be minimized or controlled. Throughout this manual the terms "area" or "neighborhood" are used interchangeably and refer to a readily identifiable portion of a community. Whether this consists of so many blocks, and entire neighborhood, or a section thereof, it should be of such size as to permit the local code enforcement team to inspect and systematically effect minimum housing standards within a manageable time. This means that area inspection programs involve systematic cellar-to-roof, house- to-house, block-to-block inspections of all properties within the specific area and include all the follow-up work required to bring the substandard housing up to code standards within a reasonable period. By putting major emphasis on this type effort instead of on the complaint-oriented approach, blight is checked and an overall upgrading of residential sections is achieved in one portion of a community after another. Thus, systematic area inspection is both a longer lasting and a much more effective method of improving housing and stabilizing property values than the traditional complaint method. Usually a municipality combines its area work with some complaint and referral inspections. This is not objectionable so long as major emphasis is given to the area programs, and the inspectors move through the various sections of town systematically. Only in this way can a community's housing inspection program contribute adequately to the municipal efforts to upgrade all substandard housing and stem the deterioration of individual homes and neighborhoods. A percentage of the inspection force should, however, be primarily assigned to complaint and referral work so that prompt action can be taken on all cases in which the problems are too severe to await action in connection with the area inspections. While the area-wide or neighborhood inspections will correct violations of the housing code, this is all they will accomplish. Once these neighborhoods are brought up to standard, inspectors will move on to other neighborhoods but be forced to return at a later time and repeat the process. If a neighborhood has declined to the extent that there is a large amount of housing 6