Contra Costa County housing authorities are being flooded with applications for Section 8 housing assistance after the program's waiting list opened for the first time in seven years.
The executive director of the county's housing authority says the agency received 4,200 online applications in the first hour they were available Monday.
Under the Section 8 program, families pay only a portion of their monthly rent. The housing authority, with funds from the from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, pays the rest.
The agency expects to receive tens of thousands of applications.
They will be placed in a random lottery and culled to 6,000 applicants who will be placed on a waiting list.
Follow this link to apply for the Section 8 waiting list.
