Would it be better if we had work farms and camps over welfare and Section 8?

[Soul Crusher]

Thousands Crowd Housing Authority For Section 8 WAITING LIST, Fights Break Out (VIDEO)
First Posted: 08-11-10 02:20 PM   |   Updated: 08-11-10 10:11 PM

www.huffingtonpost.com
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Read More: Atlanta, East Point, Financial Crisis, Georgia, Housing, Jobless, Public Housing, Section 8, Third World America, Unemployment Rate, Politics News 511789

Email Comments 3,035 More than a thousand people gathered Wednesday outside a metro-Atlanta shopping mall in hopes of being placed on a waiting list for federal housing assistance.

Fights broke out, children were reportedly trampled, and police had to stop the crowd from storming a nightclub being used by the East Point Housing Authority in East Point, Ga, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Television station 11Alive reports that the line for Section 8 housing vouchers formed two days ago and grew into the hundreds Tuesday night. People even slept outside the cafe despite repeated assertions from the housing officials that the line was unnecessary and everyone would receive an application.

By Wednesday morning, the crowd had grown so large that East Point police began patrolling the area in riot gear and first responders were tending to people who were overheating in the sun.

People became frustrated when officials, feeling overwhelmed, did not open the cafe doors at 9 a.m., as they had planned, reports CBS Atlanta. Those waiting in line were told by officials to move from one location to another before riot gear-clad police and housing officials handed out applications.

"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.

Story continues below"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."

According to the most recent data, the unemployment rate in Fulton County where East Point is located is 10.8 percent. The national average is 9.5 percent.


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They said there were tens of thousands of people at this and there are plenty of pics at drudge or huff post.  It looks like dawn of the dead. 


My question is  - would it be better if we just put all these people on farms growing food and actually being productive for once?  We could house them in tents, cabins, etc, and let them grow food for the military or other poor people. 

This just seems insane, 

[Soul Crusher]

Reminds me of Black Hawk Down 

[SAMSON123]

Thousands Crowd Housing Authority For Section 8 WAITING LIST, Fights Break Out (VIDEO)
First Posted: 08-11-10 02:20 PM   |   Updated: 08-11-10 10:11 PM

www.huffingtonpost.com
________________________ ________________________ _________-



Read More: Atlanta, East Point, Financial Crisis, Georgia, Housing, Jobless, Public Housing, Section 8, Third World America, Unemployment Rate, Politics News 511789

Email Comments 3,035 More than a thousand people gathered Wednesday outside a metro-Atlanta shopping mall in hopes of being placed on a waiting list for federal housing assistance.

Fights broke out, children were reportedly trampled, and police had to stop the crowd from storming a nightclub being used by the East Point Housing Authority in East Point, Ga, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Television station 11Alive reports that the line for Section 8 housing vouchers formed two days ago and grew into the hundreds Tuesday night. People even slept outside the cafe despite repeated assertions from the housing officials that the line was unnecessary and everyone would receive an application.

By Wednesday morning, the crowd had grown so large that East Point police began patrolling the area in riot gear and first responders were tending to people who were overheating in the sun.

People became frustrated when officials, feeling overwhelmed, did not open the cafe doors at 9 a.m., as they had planned, reports CBS Atlanta. Those waiting in line were told by officials to move from one location to another before riot gear-clad police and housing officials handed out applications.

"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.

Story continues below"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."

According to the most recent data, the unemployment rate in Fulton County where East Point is located is 10.8 percent. The national average is 9.5 percent.


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They said there were tens of thousands of people at this and there are plenty of pics at drudge or huff post.  It looks like dawn of the dead. 


My question is  - would it be better if we just put all these people on farms growing food and actually being productive for once?  We could house them in tents, cabins, etc, and let them grow food for the military or other poor people. 

This just seems insane, 

The insanity 3 is your mindset or the lack thereof...

Your country is in the midst of a total collapse, tent cities, property seizures, foreclosures, massive crowds waiting on subsidized housing and the only comment you can make concerning this human calamity is people should be put on farms or camps? Do you ever think you have spent TOO MUCH TIME ON THIS BOARD and not enough time in the reality of actually meeting people and getting to know the HUMAN CONDITION as opposed to the non-human internet where ZERO contact with REAL PEOPLE makes one lose the sense of humaneness? I said to you before it just a short matter of time before calamity strikes you. You're sitting high on a perch thinking nothing is gonna bring you down and you are so prepared for ANYTHING to come your way. You are the perfect candidate for the carpet to be YANKED from under your feet and the realization to hit that you have no where to turn and no one to help you.

[Soul Crusher]

30,000 line up for housing vouchers, some get rowdyBy Craig Schneider


The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

5:41 p.m. Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Thirty thousand people showed up to receive Section 8 housing applications in East Point Wednesday, suffering through hours in the hot sun, angry flare-ups in the crowd and lots of frustration and confusion for a chance to receive a government-subsidized apartment.

The massive event sometimes descended into a chaotic mob scene filled with anger and impatience. Some 62 people needed medical attention and 20 of them were transported to a hospital, authorities said. A baby went into a seizure in the heat and was stabilized at a hospital. People were removed on stretchers and when a throng of people who had been waiting hours in a line were told to move to another line, people started pushing, shoving and cursing, witnesses said.

Still, officials of East Point declared the day a success. Nobody was arrested and nobody was seriously injured, they said. It was an assessment roundly challenged by many of the people who had to go through it.

Kim Lemish, executive director of the East Point Housing Authority, said the event marked the first time the city has offered Section 8 housing applications since 2002. The waiting list that lasted eight years had depleted, she said, and the agency was beginning a new one. So people braved all the physical difficulties just to get on a waiting list that could keep them waiting for years.

Lemish said the agency had expected about 10,000 people but three times as many showed up. Many were just accompanying those looking for an application. Some 13,000 applications were handed out.

Concern is rising that a similar scene could occur Thursday when the housing authority of this small city begins accepting the completed applications. Wednesday's event was only to hand out the paperwork. The housing authority will begin accepting applications at 9 a.m.

Some of the crowd waited for two days at the Tri-Cities Plaza shopping center. As the temperature rose Wednesday, people fell ill.

Sgt. Cliff Chandler, spokesman for the East Point Police Department, said a toddler was treated earlier in the morning for "some type of seizure," Chandler said.

"A lot of  it was heat and some was health-related issues" such people not taking their medications, Chandler said.

By the time everyone had left around 2 p.m., the temperature had climbed into the low 90s.

East Point police, some wearing riot helmets, were patrolling the area. Firefighters and EMTs were attending to people who were overheating in the sun. Police from College Park, Hapeville, Fulton County and MARTA assisted in crowd control.

Chandler said there were no arrests.

Felecia McGhee told the AJC she arrived around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday. She said the major problem began when people started breaking into the line and then officials handing out applications started moving those areas and those line breakers. She said she saw at least two small children trampled when the crowd rushed the building where the applications were to be handed out.

"It's a real mess out here," she said.

Channel 2 Action News reporter Mike Petchenik  said fights were breaking out and police had to stop people who were storming the door.

Channel 2 reporter Tom Jones said, “There are thousands, I mean, thousands of people here. I’ve seen people fall out from the heat.”

By late morning the crowd had thinned considerably and people were walking up and getting their applications without delay. But just before the 1 p.m. deadline, a line of about 200 people had formed. Shortly after 1 p.m., several people ran across the parking lot to get in line but were told by police that the line was closed.

Emergency personnel brought in a pickup truck full of bottled water and were handing it out to the crowd.

A sign on the door of the office explained that only applications were being handed out.

"The housing authority will be issuing applications Wednesday, August 11, starting at 9 a.m. Everyone in line by 1 p.m. on the 11th will receive an application. ... No Section 8 vouchers are available at this time. There are no public housing units available at this time. You're applying for the waiting list only."

The Housing Choice Voucher Program, called Section 8, subsidized the rents of low-income families living in apartments and houses that are privately owned. The federal program makes up the difference in rent that the poor can afford and the fair market value for each area.

The federal government has specific standards for its subsidized properties but at the same time landlords are assured an income.

Only families with incomes no more than half the median income for the area qualify. The median income for the East Point area is less than $32,000, according to Census data. It is up to the renter to find a place that meets HUD standards, which includes being 90 percent to 110 percent of the “local fair market rent.”

-- Reporters Mike Morris and Rhonda Cook contributed to this story.

[Hereford]

Reminds me of Black Hawk Down 

Sure does, don't it.

[Soul Crusher]

The insanity 3 is your mindset or the lack thereof...

Your country is in the midst of a total collapse, tent cities, property seizures, foreclosures, massive crowds waiting on subsidized housing and the only comment you can make concerning this human calamity is people should be put on farms or camps? Do you ever think you have spent TOO MUCH TIME ON THIS BOARD and not enough time in the reality of actually meeting people and getting to know the HUMAN CONDITION as opposed to the non-human internet where ZERO contact with REAL PEOPLE makes one lose the sense of humaneness? I said to you before it just a short matter of time before calamity strikes you. You're sitting high on a perch thinking nothing is gonna bring you down and you are so prepared for ANYTHING to come your way. You are the perfect candidate for the carpet to be YANKED from under your feet and the realization to hit that you have no where to turn and no one to help you.

Why?  Wouldnt these people be better off actually working, learning how to grow food, make tools, being productive? 

[Eyeball Chambers]

Why?  Wouldnt these people be better off actually working, learning how to grow food, make tools, being productive? 

I think so, if we're giving them "free" money anyway, why not get something out of it?

[Kazan]

No your just supposed to feel sorry for them, how can you even consider making them earn the money