Urban renewal in Portland would be a part of the national trend. As early as 1944 there are reports by the American Public Health Association for the Portland City Planning Board and Health Department about slums in the city specifically focusing on the Bayside neighborhood. The report is quite blunt about the housing situation, “The Bayside District is, in a quite exact sense, a substandard housing area. Over half the dwelling units show at least one of those major substandard conditions which are generally recognized by responsible housing and public health authorities as warranting official remedial action” (Portland (Me.) Planning Board 1944, p.1). Substandard conditions included no indoor plumbing, not enough entrances, insufficient heating, poor ventilation, crowded conditions, and general structural problems. Homes were rated and evaluated numerically. A low score meant that it was categorized as a slum. The suggested solution to slums was simply to eliminate them through demolition, clearance zones, or marked for mandatory improvement. It was financially beneficial for the city to remove slums, “Studies made in other cities reveal conclusively that blighted areas cost a city far more to maintain than they return in tax revenue” (Portland (Me.) Planning Board 1946, p.3). The idea is that blighted areas required an unproportional amount of the city services and paid less in taxes than other areas that did not require services as often. The idea of the time was that by thinning out slums and renovating some then the neighborhoods that remain have a chance at rehabilitation. The city is not necessarily interested in replacing low-income properties. In Portland, just like the rest of the country, federal funding for new suburban housing was cheaper than trying to renovate in the city.