More than 4,000 apply for Section 8 wait list in East Hampton

The East Hampton Housing and Community Development Department received a record-setting 4,041 applications for its Section 8 housing voucher wait list this year. That’s 10 times the number of people who applied for the federal housing subsidy program in 2012. While the luxury housing market in the Hamptons is strong, 10 percent of East Hampton’s full-time residents live below the poverty line, the highest percentage in Suffolk County. East Hampton only manages up to 189 Section 8 vouchers, which will pay about two-thirds of a resident’s rent, housing and community development director Tom Ruhle told Newsday. [Newsday]