ORLANDO, Fla. — A new application portal for rent assistance for Orlando residents impacted by COVID-19 opened Wednesday morning, and more than 700 applications were received in the first two hours, according to a Heart of Florida United Way official.

The $1.5 million program is funded by CARES Act dollars and will be administered via a partnership between the City of Orlando and Heart of Florida United Way.

The program is in its first, “prescreening” phase, during which individuals may submit initial information to determine whether they are eligible to apply for the funding. Those eligible will be invited to complete an application starting on September 23. 

“As with all recently launched programs offering assistance, there was a massive rush upon the opening of the City of Orlando rental assistance program,” a spokeswoman for Heart of Florida United Way said.

Anezela Peters, 30, is just one of the many Orlando renters hoping to be accepted for funding. Peters was homeless for several months this year after losing her job at Universal Studios because she was pregnant, she said. Peters had a miscarriage and had to cope with the physical and emotional ramifications of that while bouncing from couch to couch, she said.

“Losing my job, losing my baby and everything else. It just was sad,” Peters said.

Peters worked several short-term, temporary gigs before landing a more stable position at Walmart earlier this summer. The new job was a relief. She was able to sign a lease on an apartment.

“I got back up,” Peters said.

But shortly thereafter, Peters’s managers laid her off, citing the coronavirus, she said. Since then, she’s been struggling to make ends meet and pay the rent. Her apartment complex served her with a three-day notice to pay rent that was later extended to a 30-day notice. As of now, Peters has until October 9 to pay the past-due rent or lose her place.

She said she needs more time.

“I'm telling them, OK, I'm going to pay you, but I just got let go,” Peters said.

She said she has been working with attorneys at the Legal Aid Society of the Orange County Bar Association, which offers free legal advice for those who qualify. She also already applied for Orange County’s Eviction Diversion Program but said she has yet to be contacted about that request.

As of Tuesday afternoon, just 10 of the thousands of submitted applications had been approved for payment, a spokesperson for Orange County said.

Peters will apply for the Orlando funding — and look into the federal eviction moratorium recently ordered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — on her cell phone. She had to pawn her laptop, along with some other personal possessions.

“We really need help, as much as is going on,” Peters said. “Everybody’s waiting for a check to come … this and that, payments. I’m not the only one who’s going through this.”

Molly Duerig is a Report for America corps member who is covering affordable housing for Spectrum News 13. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.