Inspection of rehabilitated urban homestead properties was included in the research plan for the Urban Homesteading evaluation study because little was known at the outset of the Demonstration about the process and nature of rehabilitation under urban homesteading. This lack of knowledge reflected the absence of any systematic data collection efforts during the earlier, locally-initiated urban homesteading programs and, indeed, the essential absence of information of any kind about the rehabilitation of single-family properties, under either public or private auspices.

The range of uncertainty about the likely experience of rehabilitation in the Urban Homesteading Demonstration was quite comprehensive.