Maxine Waters tells the homeless to ‘go home’

On Friday, Maxine Waters showed up at a non-profit event aimed at helping LA's homeless attain shelter

An event on Friday aimed at getting LA's homeless into shelters drew larger than anticipated crowds after a social media post misled people into thinking they would be given coveted Section 8 vouchers.

In attendance was Rep. Maxine Waters, who became defensive after the crowd called for more to be done about the city's homelessness crisis.

According to the LA Times, non-profit group Fathers and Mothers Who Care had planned three events in south LA to help homeless people obtain emergency shelter. There was no mention of Section 8 vouchers, which give long-term shelter, until a post on social media falsely claimed that they were being given out.

Hundreds of people showed up as a result; far too many for the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority to process at the time. As the Times reports, the LAHSA was instructed to come by Rep. Waters, who herself was also in attendance.

People soon became frustrated after learning that they would not be helped, and Rep. Waters went on the defensive.

"I want everybody to go home," Rep. Waters said after she was questioned by those in attendance.

"We don't got no home," a woman replied. "That's why we're here!"

"Nothing is gonna happen here today," Rep. Waters said, becoming flustered. "I will be downtown with LAHSA ... That's why they came out here today; I made them come out here."

"You need to know why they're failing," another woman says, "because Blanca Jimenez, we gave her several meeting requests with you concerning this and LAHSA for years, and–."

She was cut off by Rep. Waters, who cried, "Excuse me, there's nobody in Washington who works for their people any f***ing harder than I do!"

"I don't wanna hear this," she continued, ignoring peoples' requests to keep the discussion going. "No, no, no, no."

As the Times reports, large crowds showed up at a second event on Tuesday, with many claiming that Rep. Waters had told them to return with paperwork. Their attempts were fruitless, however, as Section 8 vouchers were not given out.

In a phone call with the Times' reporter covering the story, Rep. Waters said it was not a good idea to publish it, calling the homeless people "confused."

"You’ll hurt yourself and the community trying to put this together without background," she told him. “I don’t want you to start trying to write it, you won’t understand it."