A billionaire Republican mayor taking on poor and downtrodden residents of public housing? It sure makes for an inviting target for political potshots. Rep. Nydia Velazquez and company are criticizing Mayor Bloomberg for implementing a federal law that requires able-bodied residents of public housing who don’t work to perform eight hours of community service a month.

“This unprecedented and insulting federal housing policy singles out public housing residents for forced free labor,” Ms. Velazquez said in a recent press release. In fact, however, the labor isn’t “free” — the residents are getting low-cost housing in return. And it isn’t “forced” — if the residents don’t want to do the work, no one is preventing them from leaving public housing and living somewhere else, where they aren’t receiving a taxpayer subsidy.

As it is, the average stay of a family in New York public housing is 17.7 years. That’s an abuse of a benefit that was originally intended as a temporary measure to help struggling families get on their feet. We don’t mean to be callous, and no doubt neither does Mr. Bloomberg. If this policy causes some residents to leave public housing to avoid performing the community service, the effect would be to clear the way for others, now languishing on waiting lists, who may be even more needy.