The letters began arriving in the mailboxes of the sprawling public-housing complex last spring. The Worcester Housing Authority had tried to make residents self-sufficient, the letters said. But now it was taking another step.
The letters explained that step in big letters that were hard to miss: “IMPORTANT MESSAGE: Residents Required to Go to Work/Attend School.” As long as they weren’t disabled or over 55, the letter elaborated, at least one member of each household had to go to work or school, or risk eviction.
“If you want a government benefit, then you have to do something for it," Ray Mariano, the head of the Worcester Housing Authority, told me, in explaining the program.
Worcester is the latest government authority to try to influence the personal decisions of citizens. To make New York residents healthier, for example, Mayor Michael Bloomberg tried to ban super-sized drinks, and last month, U.S. Housing and Urban Development said it was prohibiting smoking in public housing, also for health reasons. A popular behavioral economics idea—often referred to as “nudge” and popularized by a book of the same name—has the government advocating to enroll people in 401(k)s unless they opt out and putting healthier food at the beginning of school lunch buffets so that children will choose fruits and vegetables, rather than chips.
[For more of this story, written by Alana Semuels, go to http://www.citylab.com/housing...-how-to-live/420303/]
Comments (0)