Section Eight Housing is a voucher program that helps people with low-income pay their rent. The only way to apply is a waiting list that takes names just one day each year.

Mykeisha Hodges started standing in line at 1:00a.m.

"Just sitting in line -- that was fine," said Hodges. "But when the doors were about to open, that's when all the drama started."

The Gainesville Housing Authority opens its waiting list for Section Eight Housing about once a year.

"It's just an application," said Barbara Richardson, Section 8 Manager. "They still have to go through the process."

Richardson says even though the application process is not on a first-come, first-serve basis and her office tries to let people know that's the case, hundreds get in line early. . . really early.

"It's still just hard to convince people that 'don't come up as early, We'll be here all day you know, they still come in as early as from what we understand 10 o'clock last night," said Richardson.

Once applicants make it inside, staffers interview them to talk about their eligibility. Richardson says the agency has tried various other ways of doing this over the past decade, and nothing else seems to work.

This was a tough sell to people like Hodges, who weathered the heat and fought off line skippers.

"I think there should be a better way because you know they should have more crews like overnight staff," said Hodges. "They should have more hours for people to work with. Therefore, it wouldn't be a problem."