Beginning in 1949, the District of Columbia began making housing inspections in Marshall Heights, looking for code violations. Inspectors found that 9 out of 10 homes failed at least one health, housing, or building safety regulation, and they concluded that 8 out of every 10 homes in the neighborhood should be razed or renovated down to the framing studs. In May 1950, city inspectors estimated that 150 of the neighborhood's 500 homes were so unsafe that they should be razed. Yet, by the end of 1952, the city had condemned just 65 homes. A second inspection wave began in 1957. But by year's end, only 39 homes had been condemned and razed. A total of 348 homes had been cited for housing and building violations by the end of 1958, but city inspectors revealed that just 78 had been repaired and brought up to code. When questioned by the media as to why more homes had not been condemned, the city said condemnations would simply make extremely poor residents homeless, driving them into other slums and worsening the overcrowding there. The inspection program was to have ended in 1959, but the city kept it going because so few Marshall Heights residents had the money to make repairs or improvements to their homes. (Of the 348 homes found to be in violation, 81 homes had seen no repair.) With condemnation not an option, the city decided to keep inspecting homes and putting pressure on residents. By 1960, this third wave of inspections found that 302 of 347 inspected homes were in violation of either housing or building codes. Another six homes were condemned after 1957, bringing the total to just 45, so in 1961 city officials sought to condemn another 25 homes. By now, inspections had cited a total of 661 housing units (apartments and homes), even though the housing stock was relatively new (the average age of a home in Marshall Heights that year was 17 years). Inspections were so frequent, and residents so fearful of them, that some homeowners were refusing to admit city inspectors.