LEE COUNTY — Thousands of people and businesses are now counting on Lee County for help.
On Tuesday, the county officially started accepting applications for CARES Act money that it received from the federal government. We spoke with Marissa Stafford, who lives in Cape Coral and applied with the county. She's been unemployed for months, and she’s still waiting on her IRS refund, her stimulus check, and she’s gotten nowhere with the state unemployment system.
Stafford said, when she went to apply for assistance through the county, she initially ran into trouble.
“I jumped on it right away, and before I could even begin, there was problems with that website," said Stafford.
She called the county, which had people answering the phones all day, but ultimately they couldn't figure out the issue.
“She said, you know what, just come down and pick up the application, she gave me the address, and I said great, I was on it," said Stafford.
In a news conference later, Commissioner Cecil Pendergrass addressed the problem.
"Some of the devices was not downloading the page the way it should be, and it wasn't showing all the icons. That's the only thing I've heard about, and that's been resolved since this morning," said Pendergrass.
Commission Chair Brian Hamman put into perspective the enormous strain the system was under in its first day.
“I think the fact that, in basically four hours, we had almost 7,000 applications, really demonstrates that a lot of people and a lot of businesses are really hurting out there," said Hamman.
People like Stafford, who said, she needs this money to pay her landlord.
“$2,000 would definitely put a nice chunk in what I do owe," said Stafford.
The county said it saw more individuals like Stafford than businesses applying for assistance through its Homelessness Prevention Program. It’s currently working with a pool of about $57 million, but Commissioners could vote to increase it.
The county says it is still accepting applications both online and in person at the Lee County Administration building.
