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.

[GailA]

It amounts to about 15 mins or less a day...in several states it is mandatory that HS students 'volunteer' their time to their community in order to graduate.

[SC_Republican]

8 per month? Thats it?

[goldstategop]

They're not being asked to work 40 hrs a week. Where's the gratitude for being provided with a taxpayer subsidized place to live?

[Fraulein]

What makes them think that they are 'working for free?'

[Tripleplay]

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. She said she expects about 50 of the 500 Port Huron public housing residents to be affected.

A good assessment of the work ethic of a government employee.

Paperwork for "50" people is a "nightmare"!

[At _War_With_Liberals]

Human beings are enslaved under socialism.

If they won't work 8 hrs/month, who thinks they will ever want to work 8 hrs a day?

[At _War_With_Liberals]

If they were smart, they would organize and riot.

The 8 hr requirement would disappear the next day...

[Fraulein]

Rocqumore, 46, said he has lived in the Douglass complex since 1997 and does not have a job. He said he thinks it's wrong for the complex to force him and others to work for free while they are paying as much as $160 per month in rent.

Well, he hasn't worked a day in 6 years...

[Loyal Buckeye]

But, but, but where's the living wage and guaranteed health insurance in return for the 8 hours of work? ;-)

[JOHANNES801]

The bum pays $160 a month in rent,he gets the rent money for free in his welfare check.

[zygoat]

Sounds like "Jewrell" isn't pleased that the reparations package that he has enjoyed all his life are now going to have stipulations. 8 hours a month? They should be required to work at least 50. Also, their taxpayer funded neighboorhoods should be spotless. This situation is what the Democrats have wrought-and what they will try to continue, all for votes.Sickening.

[nravoter]

"I don't like it. It's a Gestapo-type tactic," said Jewrell Rocqumore, a resident of the Douglass Public Housing complex on Detroit's lower east side.

Actually, Jewrell, forcing workers to hand over fifty percent of their income or more to support people who despise them is a little more gestapo-like.

In fact forcing the rest of us to work to house, clothe, and feed you while you relax at home all day really is a--dare I say it?--plantation-type tactic.

[JOHANNES801]

They should work 50 a week like I do to pay taxes to keep all these bums.A better name for them is hobo-sexuals. {think about it}

[johniegrad]

$160 per month in rent

This is miniscule compared to my property taxes. This is the type of person who will vote "yes" on every school referendum that comes along because it will never effect him. There is no connection in his mind between price and value since what he has (as little as it may be) is now being given to him. He views it as an entitlement. If he is entitled to it, how can he be expected to have to contribute to it. After all, it is his.

This is one of the reasons why politicians get elected by pandering to special interest groups and why our method of "one man, one vote" may not be realistic any more.

[Rebelbase]

"I don't like it. It's a Gestapo-type tactic,"

Ingorance flows like a river.

[Fzob]

"We will try to make the volunteer work as convenient as possible for them and something they can do on the premises. Since they will be working for free, we don't want them having to pay money to travel to work."

What waste of time and money for our congress-critters to be involved in. More fodder for the sheep so we believe they are acting in our best interests.

This program will quickly devolve into an exercise in paperwork. Folks who are unwilling to work ALWAYS have enough time to work the systems. It will take about two days before the paperwork will be signed and no work will be done. Within a year or two they will be getting paid for this 'work' once the lawyers sue because it is forced labor.

[Fraulein]

"To tell somebody they have to do it or leave? That does not sit good on the stomach," Rocqumore said recently

Yes, Jewrell, that's how it is for the rest of us -- if we don't work in order to pay our mortgage or rent, then yes, we get kicked out of our apartment or we lose our home...

[At _War_With_Liberals]

"Well, he hasn't worked a day in 6 years... "

The last 6 years consecutively. Convenient that they don't even mention his last job. Probably has not worked a day since the state adopted him. Some are willing to lead a simple no frills life, without working. I've seen it first hand in my neighborhood for 20 years.

[Fraulein]

...when they are paying as much as $160 per month in rent...

I take it that the "as much as" means that there are people in the complex who are paying even less than $160 and that $160 is the maximum?