Public housing residents face ultimatum: Do volunteer work or get out

Detroit Free Press ^ | August 23, 2003 | ERIK LORDS

[sarcasm]

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.

[nravoter]

Unlike the govt making me pay for it and charging me property tax to lease land that I OWN to boot!

Yep, those bastards will get you coming and going. Here in Virginia, we pay a hefty annual car tax (even though it has been reduced 75%) in addition to the standard property taxes, sales tax, income tax, etc.

I complained in front of one of my co-workers once about the fact that the major road connecting my town to DC is a toll road. He smarmily asked (as only a European-born and -raised socialist like him could) "You want your roads to be maintained, don't you?"

I replied "Yes, and I'd like the state and county to do it out of the car tax, gasoline taxes, and other fees I already pay for the "privilege" of driving.

[pennboricua]

They have completely bypassed the UNION issue, first argument will be that these volunteers (joke) are doing their job.

[At _War_With_Liberals]

I used to be a casemanager, and is that ever true! Its' also the reason I won't ever work in that field again.


You hire a doctor who plays ball and gets a permanent 'sick' patient on Medicaid and a good civil rights atty to file the paperwork with all the right answers on the app. Voila! You are retired.

Then you work off the books or criminally.

[GailA]

I agree...I have 2 forms of arthritis...and couldn't qualify for SSI if I tried. Yet folks who are over weight which causes knee problems can.

[At _War_With_Liberals]

I'm in Jersey, tell me about it. I pay 11,000 prop tax on a 250K building.

[Fraulein]

Here's a bit of information on Detroit's Douglass complex:

Late at night, prostitutes and drug-dealers loiter in the courtyard of the Douglass public housing project near Ford Field. Inside the four high-rises, trash and graffiti cover concrete stairwells. Odorous hallways have dirty carpets and walls with holes....

The buildings were refurbished just three years ago but already are showing signs of decay. The trash left in stairwells isn't just candy wrappers or old newspapers. On the landing of one floor was a 5-foot-high stereo speaker. Another landing had a discarded portable television. A resident who went to mail a letter in the ground-floor lobby found four mice scurrying around in circles near the laundry room.

Davis, 48, who has lived at Douglass for seven years, said the complex's management has failed to fix the lock of a rear door to one of the buildings...

Patricia Greenlee, 57, who has lived at the complex for five years, told management that her shower was faulty, spraying water everywhere. Two months later, she's still waiting for the problem to be fixed. "They say they'll get someone over," she said. "I don't like it."

During the summer, her church holds Sunday services in the same area, she said, and church members have found used condoms among the debris.

The hallway outside Neeley's apartment Wednesday was dark in the middle of the day, the only light coming from a dim fluorescent bulb. She complained to the building superintendent in the middle of April. First, she hoped the light would be replaced by Easter. Now she hopes it will be done by Mother's Day, which is this Sunday.

These people can't even replace a lightbulb or fix a lock for themselves! Sheesh!

Hud Troubles

[45semi]

"why our method of "one man, one vote" may not be realistic any more."

Nowdays it should be
'One'
contributing-to-the betterment-of-society,
non-felony-convicted,
supports-their-wife-and-family,
owns-property,
consistently-employed-thru-the-years,
obviously-a-solid-citizen
'man'

One vote.

[csvset]

Perhaps we could outsource our public housing residents to China or India.

Surely, they could house them for far less than the state can.

[redrock]

Wow...what a concept!!!!

Actually WORKING to help pay for all the rest of us supporting them. Actually DOING something...

So when does the ACLU start the lawsuit????

redrock

[festus]

AND IF ELECTED.....

I promise to make all able bodied persons on welfare rise at the crack of dawn and work digging a hole of 4 by 4 by 4 and then fill it back in. Those who don't complete the task will be flogged.

If they don't like those terms then they are free to quit welfare and seek gainful employment.

Remember vote Festus in November !!!

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

This type of racially insensitive conduct on the part of government officials must be stopped!

[CIB-173RDABN]

The parents said no way and they volunteer 10 hours per week..

---

The union workers in California do not allow parents to volunteer to do maintenance work. They would rather have no maintenance done (lack of money) then allow "non-union" workers do the work.

I would suspect this would be true in any heavly Democratic state.

[IronJack]

No doubt these parasites will scam their way out of their obligation; they're willing to spend 2 or 3 hours a day working to avoid work. But the theory is sound, and it's a step in the right direction. And in DETROIT no less!

[suzyq5558]

I have a nieghbor who i asked one day recently where she worked, imagine my surprise when she said to me i dont work im on SSI.
well i didnt even know at the time what SSI was but she gave me a quick overview in how she cheats the
ssi program by claiming to hear voices in her fridgedaire and other electronic devises. my mouth was hanging open in shock she was so very casual about it. i asked her if she did hear voices for real,oh no she said she only said that to qualify for the SSI program.
then SSI told her six yr's ago that she had to move in with her parents which she said has really put a crimp in her lifestyle.I think her parents are annoyed with her all the time over this.
I have lived here on this road for over a yr. now and only just recently met this woman,when i asked why i never see her out and about she said she tends to sleep a lot because of the med's she takes for the voices that she doesnt have.
I was pretty upset with her fraudulent claim which caused a bit a scene between us that day.
i did let her know that i thought she and others like her were the reason my property taxes and state taxes were so high which she did not seem to understand i guess.
it just makes me ill to see all the abuse and outright theft of our hard earned dollars going to these kind of programs that allow bums and frauds to live at our expense.

[upcountryhorseman]

I don't care how long it is: it's involuntary
servitude.

[nravoter]

I don't care how long it is: it's involuntary servitude.

So's working and and having a large portion of my income confiscated to support deadbeats like the whiners in this article, all so that a bunch of socialists in Congress can brag about how compassionate they are with my money.

[Maigrey]

If the able bodied don't like it, they can get off the gubermint teat abd live in non-subsidized housing and pay taxes like the rest of us! I'm tired also of subsidizing someone else's fraud and laziness.

[virgil]

An example for those who don't understand the relationship between slavery and welfare

[At _War_With_Liberals]

"it just makes me ill to see all the abuse and outright theft of our hard earned dollars going to these kind of programs that allow bums and frauds to live at our expense. "

I know. Its completely out of control. Its almost like govt officials are looking the other way on this stuff.