SOCIAL CAPITALISM

Public housing residents face ultimatum: Do volunteer work or get out (ERIK LORDS, August 23, 2003, Detroit Free Press)

Complete eight hours of volunteer community work a month or be evicted.

That's the ultimatum being given to hundreds of thousands of able-bodied, unemployed residents of public housing complexes across the nation and in metro Detroit as part of a new federal law that takes effect Oct. 1.

Aimed at improving impoverished neighborhoods and introducing nonworkers to career possibilities, the law exempts students, people with a disability, seniors, those working full-time and mothers participating in welfare-to-work programs.

Those affected will be required to work in churches, schools or with other nonprofit groups as part of the 1998 Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act. [...]

Betty Ward, deputy director of the Port Huron Housing commission in St. Clair County, said: "I think it's going to be a nightmare to track and enforce."

Like Stennis in Detroit, Ward said she is hopeful that her office will not have to evict residents. But the potential is there.

"One way to get out of it, for residents, is to get a job." Ward said.

Now, if only the middle class were as willing to impose responsibilities on itself for the government benefits it receives. Posted by Orrin Judd at August 24, 2003 8:08 AM