East Point Begins Taking Housing Applications Early

East Point housing officials began accepting Section 8 applications 90 minutes early Thursday morning after crowds of people showed up to turn in the forms.

A day after a crowd of 30,000 mobbed a shopping center to pick up the forms, a small crowd of less than a dozen people began lining up around 5 a.m. The group was dispersed by East Point police about an hour later. But shortly after 7 a.m., officials allowed people to line up on the sidewalk adjacent to the building. There were about 50 people in line at 7:30, when officials brought out boxes and began to accept the applications. That process had been scheduled to begin at 9 a.m.

Police used cones to set up a special lane on Norman Berry Drive where people could drop off their forms without getting out of their cars. An official with a box was collecting the applications and telling people the forms would be stamped with 9 a.m. today's date and then moving them back into traffic.

Officials appeared to be going the extra mile to accommodate the crowd, and the effort appeared to be paying off as the process was going much more smoothly than on Wednesday.

Authorities had blocked off the parking lots at the East Point Housing Authority offices on Norman Berry Drive and were encouraging applicants to return their forms by mail, but that didn't stop people from queuing up outside the doors at 5 a.m.

Marissa White arrived at the Housing Authority office about 6:25 a.m. and walked up to the front door to wait to turn in her application.

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