Applications for Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers in Manatee County will be accepted this year for the first time since 2015. But applying for a housing voucher and getting a spot on what is sure to be a lengthy waitlist is only the beginning of an oftentimes drawn-out process. Willie Calhoun, executive director of the Manatee County Housing Authority, said when the applications last opened five years ago, about 6,000 to 7,000 people applied in a week’s time. Only a quarter of them made the waitlist through a lottery selection. It has taken since 2015 for the housing authority to go through that list, and it is now down the last few hundred names, Calhoun said.