Assistance for Residents

2022 City of Orlando Rental Assistance Program

The City of Orlando was awarded $6.8 million in COVID-19 Relief Funds from the U.S. Department of the Treasury to provide Emergency Rental Assistance for households that were financially impacted directly or indirectly by the COVID-19 pandemic. With high demand and limited funds available, all funds for the program were exhausted in August 2022.

 
2021 City of Orlando Rental Assistance Program
The U.S. Department of the Treasury allocated $8.6 million in federal funds to help City of Orlando residents in need of rental assistance. With high demand and limited funds available, all funds for the program were exhausted in November 2021.

 

2020 City of Orlando Rental Assistance Program
From September to December 2020, the City of Orlando hosted a rental assistance program, a partnership with Heart of Florida United Way (HFUW) which helped more than 550 households get current on unpaid rent payments since March 1, 2020. The program was funded with approximately $2.5 million in Coronavirus Relief Funds (CRF) received from the State of Florida. With high demand and limited funds available, all funds were exhausted by the December 30, 2020 deadline.

Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA)  

Pandemic Unemployment Assistance provides up to 39 weeks of assistance benefits to individuals who are self-employed, independent contractors, certain non-profit employees and gig economy workers, as well as to individuals working part-time, or who otherwise would not qualify for regular state Reemployment Assistance benefits. For more information, please visit floridajobs.org/cares-act.  

Reemployment Assistance (Unemployment) 

Reemployment assistance benefits, formerly known as unemployment compensation, can be mailed in or filed online using the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) portal. Reemployment Assistance provides temporary wage replacement (unemployment insurance) benefits to eligible individuals who are out of work through no fault of their own. You can apply by visiting the DEO portal or filling out the PDF application and mailing it in. 

COVID-19 Vaccine Registration Assistance 

The City of Orlando’s HOLA Office is providing bilingual (English and Spanish) assistance to seniors 65+ for the COVID-19 vaccine online registration. Please, call HOLA at 407.246.4301 to register today.

Food Resources

  • Second Harvest’s Food Locator can help residents find local emergency food providers. Please call the local emergency food provider before heading there, to make sure that their hours or location has not changed.
  • Seniors First offers meal options to help older adults get the nutrition they need.
  • OCPS continues to provide weekly breakfast, lunch and supper for any child not attending face to face school at any school through curbside meal distribution starting 30 minutes after the last bell for 90 minutes. Parents and/or guardians or other volunteers can pick up meals for their children and other children in their neighborhood. Learn more here.

Other Resources

  • Heart of Florida United Way connects residents to financial, mental health and crisis assistance programs through its 2-1-1 service and has established a fund to support residents whose financial stability is being impacted by the economic consequences of COVID-19.  
  • Aspire Health Partners is offering a dedicated telephone line to assist residents with mental health concerns related to COVID-19. Residents can call the helpline at 407.875.3700 ext 2.

  • Orange County’s Resident Resources has an overview of other resources that may be available to you.

  • The Child Care Tax Credit is available to most working families and most families will receive monthly payments without having to take any action. Low-income families who were not required to file taxes in 2020 or 2019 must sign-up to receive payments.

Local COVID-19 Testing Sites

  • A list of testing sites in Orange County is available here. 

COVID-19 Vaccine Sites

Learn more about local public health agency distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine in Central Florida.

View vaccine sites

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