At any given time, about 1,000 people are part of Douglas County's Section 8 housing, but DCHA also needs to maintain a waiting list. It gave out 500 applications Friday to be placed on that waiting list and thousands came out hoping to be one of the lucky ones.

“I was just seeing if I could get a Section 8 paper mailed out to me,” said Shanica Williams, who was one of the hopefuls who gathered at DCHA headquarters at 108th and Fort in Omaha.

She got there at 6 a.m. with her two children. The applications weren't given out until 8 a.m. “We were just standing in line and people were just bomb rushing just to grab a piece of paper and ripped the papers all up so it's just pitiful, it's crazy.”

Wlliams wasn't able to get one. "I need it because I'm a single parent, I've got two kids and it ain't gonna work."

Tony Hunt also came out. He has a job, but was hoping for help. "I saw chaos, I saw a lot of disgruntled people who are looking for help and didn't get it.”

An hour after the applications ran out people were still coming into the office. "All applications are done, we gave them out this morning."

"This is just ridiculous, I still see people coming, they advertise 8 until 4:30 applications would be given, there's only 500 and by 8:15 the head person there, the lady said the applications were gone," said Hunt.

“This is crazy, I've been going through this all the same. I thought I was going to get somewhere."

Even those who did receive an application won't see help right away. They will be added to the waiting list, where they could wait one to three years before they are given Section 8 housing.