Community Service Requirement 'Unfair'

"Some 370,000 residents of public housing will have to perform eight hours of community service each month to stay in their apartments under rules revived by the Bush administration." Community service could include anything from volunteering at an afterschool program or a homeless shelter. "The rule essentially targets those who are neither working nor in school, although it exempts people in job training programs and the elderly and disabled. About 80 percent of the 2 million adults in public housing would be exempt, HUD estimates....House Democrats and many local housing officials say the rule is unfair because those who receive other types of housing aid, such as vouchers for private rentals or mortgage interest deductions on income taxes, aren't bound by the same requirement." The rule is to be enforced by public housing agencies by Oct. 31, 2003.

Thanks to Connie Chung