Prince George’s County opened up the application portal for the Housing Choice Voucher Program, commonly referred to as Section 8 housing, last week. During the five-day window that applications were open, there were more than 47,000 applicants for just 5,000 slots.

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So what happens next?

Over the next 45 days, the county will process the applications and a random lottery will decide who gets vouchers and who gets put on the waitlist. And until the new waitlist with over 42,000 names on it is exhausted, it won’t be open again.

There’s no telling how

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