ORLANDO, Fla. — The Orange County government's online portal for residents to apply for CARES Act assistance reopened Monday morning after a more than two-week closure but quickly reached capacity.

Late last week, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said it could be the last time it opens.

What You Need To Know

The Orange County CARES program has been extremely popular since it opened last month, with more than 28,000 applications and 21,000 approvals.

The portal to apply for individual and family assistance has not been open since June 22. At 8 a.m. Monday, it reopened to allow residents to get that chance again. But less than 20 minutes later, Orange County said it had already reached its 10,000-user capacity.

The funds provide residents with $1,000 to pay their rent and utility expenses. Some of the qualifications include loss of a job or hours cut because of the pandemic.

“This pandemic, I never saw it coming, and it's different. It's changed my life,” said Orlando resident Wanda Jackson, a cashier who said her hours have been cut due to the pandemic.

Jackson said will be applying for assistance on Monday. 

“It's been kind of tough, but like I said, we are a praying family, so we trust God, and trust God in the whole process,” Jackson said.

A county administrator involved with the processing of applications told Spectrum News 13 in some cases where people who applied weeks ago haven’t received money, the county could be taking another look to see if applicants are eligible for funds.

“We want to make sure that we don’t deny anybody that we could approve, so we have multiple people review any denials and see if they’re able to see something that somebody else wasn’t able to see,” said Diane Arnold, Orange County Citizen Resource and Outreach Division Manager.

Arnold says Orange County has added more staff to the processing of applications, and she says some of those staffers are working overtime. But Arnold says it’s still possible for it to take several weeks for some people’s applications to be processed.

For those who haven’t received the money they were looking for, or who haven’t yet heard back, Arnold suggests turning to other county programs that also offer financial and other assistance.

If you have already applied for CARES program assistance, the county asks that you do not reapply. Any reapplication will count as a duplication & disqualify you from funding.