Three years ago, Congress passed a law requiring able-bodied, adult public housing residents to perform community service.

The federal government didn't release regulations for two years, and the law didn't take effect locally until October.

But Congress, which has taken a lot of flack for the community service requirement, has suspended it in all but HOPE VI cases, said L. DeWitt Boosel, executive director of Mercer County Housing Authority.

While the 1998 Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act is still on the books, Boosel said Wednesday it looks like the community service requirements will be scrapped.

The regulations required authority residents who receive assistance under the Welfare-to-Work program to perform eight hours of volunteer work a month for non-profit agencies, governments, the authority or churches.

Locally only about 30 people were required to perform community service, Boosel said. The authority had to document the service and was to use the information in its annual evaluation of tenants.

Residents who did not comply were supposed to be penalized, with eviction the most severe sanction.

Documenting the community service could have been a logistical nightmare for authority officials.

"From the housing authority standpoint, we're housing people," Boosel said. "We don't have the staff to handle it."

Residents of Steel City Terrace who want to move back once the community is demolished and rebuilt under the HOPE VI program still will have to perform community service, Boosel said.

He added that resident participation in the Community Support Service program, which will be a requirement anyway, can be counted as community service, Boosel said.