ORLANDO, Fla. — One minute- that’s how long it took for Orange County’s federal funding residential portal to reach capacity.

What You Need To Know

  • Residential portal will reopen on Tuesday

  • Orange County offering assistance from CARES Act Funds

  • Money available for residents, small businesses

  • Application process could take 5 to 10 days

  • WHERE TO APPLY: Orange Cares website

James Simon said 4 minutes after logging onto Orange County’s CARES Act funding portal at 8 a.m. Monday, he received a message indicating the portal was closed, and no longer accepting applications for the day. It was a message many other people also received:

This online application is temporarily closed.
The next opening date is
Wednesday, June 10, 2020
8:00 AM

“I was told that unfortunately the applications were so many that the window closed already very fast,” Luciano Gennari said.

Orange County opened its CARES Act portal to both residents and small businesses Monday morning. An Orange County spokeswoman sent Spectrum News this timeline:

7:30 a.m.: Application portal made live on Orange County servers (not public)

7:48 a.m.: Link to application portal made live on the back-end of ocfl.net (anticipated live to the public by 8 a.m.)

7:54 a.m.: First application was started

7:54 a.m.: Application portal closed (ISS notes: closed with 2,000 in the portal, not 2,000 received)

“We will only take a certain number of applications: 2,000 applications before closing but what we’re going to do is we’re going to close, re-open, close, re-open,” said Dianne Arnold, with Orange County’s Citizen Resource and Outreach Division.

A frustrating process that’s far too familiar for Simon, who tried for weeks to apply for state and federal unemployment benefits after losing his job in March. He said applying for help during this pandemic should be easier.

“Let people apply for the benefits,” Simon said. “They need it today. They need it like yesterday. They need it like months ago since March when we were getting no checks.”

Initially, the county announced that the portal would not reopen for new applications until Wednesday. However, but Monday evening officials announced that applicants could apply on Tuesday starting at 8 a.m. and that the portal would be open for the first 20,000 applications.

Residents with approved applications will receive a one-time payment of $1,000. There is $72.9 million available for that.

That same amount is available for small businesses, which can apply to each get $10,000. 

While Orange County’s residential portal closed before 8 a.m., the small business portal did not fill to capacity for the date. It was still open as of 4 p.m.

Applicants will have to meet certain criteria and have certain paperwork.

It will take anywhere from five to 10 days before applicants find out if they've been approved. Head to the Orange County website to see the criteria. Information is also available through Orange County's hotline by dialling 3-1-1.​

Orange County officials said extra staff was trained and the application process was streamlined in anticipation of Monday's launch.