The crowd began with just a few hundred people gathering around noon Monday at the Tri-Cities Plaza Shopping Center. By Wednesday morning, the East Point Public Housing Authority estimated it had swelled to tens of thousands, all clamoring for applications.

Many in the crowd could be seen running toward police vehicles. Thousands were gathered around the front of the plaza. Many more were just waiting in long lines.

"We have a lot of homeless families, a lot of families who are unemployed and it creates a desperate situation, which is what our agency was created to assist with," said Kim Lemish, the executive director of East Point Housing Authority.

Right now East Point's nearly 200 public housing units are full.  In addition, the housing authority has qualified more than 400 others to use Section 8 vouchers for subsidized rent in the private housing sector.

For the masses in line Wednesday, the chances of getting immediate housing assistance in East Point are slim. All they wanted was to get on the waiting list, which last opened in 2002.

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TVNL Comment: As you think of tens of thousands of Americans lining up for TWO days in blazing heat to apply for 400 units of public housing, remember the clamor in Washingto to continue the Bush tax cut for the wealthy.