Chicago raises the bar for living in public housing [some residents are now being required to work]

csmonitor.com ^ | October 05, 2004 | Amanda Paulson

[Screaming Eagle Red Leg]

Horrible that people are required to work! Horrible! What is this country coming to!

[luvie]

WORK!! I guess that means the free ride is over--time for Mighty Mouse Kerry to come in and save the day! Imagine having to get your hands dirty and all!

[Xenalyte]

Obviously, no one opposes work," says Kate Walz, a lawyer at the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law in Chicago. "But the concern is that we'll have these model, mixed-income developments, with a lot of resources and access to public transportation and new schools, while all families ineligible will be pushed out to the same old public-housing developments, so nothing will have changed."

No one's ineligible. You sign up, you're in. You just gotta do something they tell you up-front you have to do.

[Dubya]

"Obviously, no one opposes work," says Kate Walz, a lawyer at the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law in Chicago.

LOL

[Americanwolf]

Imagine that, they are requiring people work for their money!

I guess this kind of evil is what seperates us from the socialist governments like Canada. :)

[Screaming Eagle Red Leg]

Sargent Shriver

Isn’t he that guy who could never manage to get promoted above E-5?

[Dubya]

Not everything is set in stone, he notes. Heads of household, for instance, will have a 12-month grace period in which they can look for work or attend job training.

This is really being tough on them.

[Screaming Eagle Red Leg]

Work? Damn Republicans! Save us, “Irish” Johnny, save us!

[Americanwolf]

*LOL*

[Old Professer]

If someone were to ever invent a kitchen utensil that would get the last ounce of peanut butter out of the jar, hunger in America would be eradicated.

[CzarNicky]

"Among other things, heads of household will have to work 30 hours a week."

Chicago is obviously run by fascist Republicans. </DU>

[Screaming Eagle Red Leg]

Wow, 30 hours! There is a name for that: part-time!

[asgardshill]

If someone were to ever invent a kitchen utensil that would get the last ounce of peanut butter out of the jar, hunger in America would be eradicated.

They've got one and they work great. It looks like a big tube of toothpaste - I've stopped buying peanut butter in jars as a result.

[Kurt_D]

"mixed-income housing" is a failure. It doesn't work. It's complete nonsense that only works in the twisted minds of delusional left-wing Utopists. I say: eliminate public housing a free the market. Why should WE subsidize a roof for people we don't know and ESPECIALLY don't care about? I work hard to pay my rent. I work hard to pay my food. Why should my money subsidize people that don't work and have decided too many children?

[Kurt_D]

...or French full-time. *lol*

[sarasmom]

Looks like they are finally trying to do what works.
It never made sence to have "low income housing projects" where everyone in a large neighborhood area is "underpriviledged" and on government assistance.
How can anyone learn anything except living in poverty and how to milk more from assistance programs in that environment?

[jrushing]

"Among other things, heads of household will have to work 30 hours a week."

How will they figure out who that is? Heads of household?

[Verginius Rufus]

Many years ago the mayor of Newburgh, N.Y., got the idea of making welfare recipients work, which caused an outcry. National Review had a sarcastic comment about how unfair it was to demand that of people who were able-bodied through no fault of their own.

[sandbar]

>How can anyone learn anything except living in poverty and >how to milk more from assistance programs in that >environment?

I lived in government housing when my husband left me with a one and two year old, by myself. I got a job, lived where I had to untill I could do better. Saved enough for a deposit on a duplex (with a back yard, so no more broken beer bottles and crack dealers to contend with). When I was moving, the women in the complex were asking me where I was moving and how they wished they could get so 'lucky' to get out and a nice place with a yard. As if I just won the lottery or something, or worse yet, because I was white I must have been just given something. (I say that because I heard that too, but there were white women saying the same thing, go figure) Never mind that I got up and left my house at 7 am to take my kids to daycare, then go to work while they were snoozing away. There is more action at 2am then at 7 am in the projects. Except on school days, then you see the kids going to school and every now and then a responsible parent who manages to come to the busstop in thier robe and slippers. Then come home at nearly 6 to cook supper and clean up after two babies. One not even walking. I'm sorry, but it had less to do with luck and more to do with hard work and sacrifice.