Thousands Crowd Housing Authority For Section 8 WAITING LIST, Fights Break Out.

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It astounds me that we are looking at these scenes in the United States in 2010.

30,000 people took to the streets in the hope of getting an application form which would allow them to apply for public housing.

"I find this amazing," Ed Schultz said on "The Ed Show" Wednesday night. "One can only imagine watching this videotape ... how many other cities have it like this across America. And I think we have to ask ourselves the moral question, aren't we better than this?"

East Point's approximately 200 public housing units are full, according to 11Alive, and more than 400 Section 8 vouchers are already in use. It is unlikely that many of those waiting for the applications would ever receive the housing funds.

"A lot of these folks will never get off that waitlist, and the executive director of the housing authority acknowledged that today," NBC reporter Ron Mott told Schultz. "Dozens upon dozens of people passing out from the heat, standing in the heat just to apply for public housing. ... I've got to tell you, the first thought that I had when we pulled up on the scene here was whether we were in America."

Surely there was no need to ask people to turn up in person? This could have been done on-line, or even by post. But they really didn't need to ask people to take part in this charade. Especially as most of them will never get public housing.

But there is a desperation revealed here that we don't often see. It's like a snap shot of the suffering and the longings that usually remain anecdotal. No-one can deny that there is a real need for public housing when you see scenes like this.

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Tags: Section 8 waiting lists, Atlanta, public housing