In just over 15 minutes, the window shut on Orange County residents and small businesses trying to apply for CARES Act assistance today.
Starting this morning at 8 a.m., Orange County begin taking online applications for individuals and local small businesses to submit their applications to receive direct disbursements of federal CARES Act funds through the county. Within minutes, site administrators shut the application portals down.
At 8:17 a.m., the Orange County government Twitter account announced the shutdown and a reopening date:
Apparently more than 2,000 people applied within the first few minutes. Comments on the Twitter thread were understandably angry, with some getting an access error message right at 8 a.m., others getting midway through their applications and the site kicking them out, and some even seeing the application button disappear before 8 a.m.
There has been nothing in the way of substantive clarification from Orange County on this as yet.
The fund is intended to provide individuals with $1,000 in direct assistance and local small businesses with $10,000 in assistance. This mishap falls right in line with what happened with the Orange County Rent Assistance Program, and, more broadly, the continuing problems with Florida’s broken unemployment system. leaving those in need feeling confused and largely abandoned.
The application portal will reopen on Wednesday, June 10, but no time has been given as of this writing.
This is a developing story. We will update as events unfold.
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This article appears in Jun 3-9, 2020.