CLEARWATER, Fla. — Giselle Wiggins spoke with the ABC Action News I-Team from the couch she now sleeps on after being evicted from her Clearwater Beach apartment following Hurricane Milton.
A POD, filled with everything she has, sits outside.
Wiggins told the I-Team, “I got a knock on the door, and the police were there and said, you know you're being evicted. And I said, what?"
The single mother moved into her mother's Clearwater home with her three kids two weeks ago, after she could no longer afford rent, out of work after the storm.
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“I’m a photographer, videographer by trade," Wiggins said, who shared that she would hand out business cards and pick up jobs nightly during sunsets on the beach.
She applied for disaster unemployment assistance on Oct. 2.
“I’ve been, more than diligently, looking for a job. I mean, it's been obsessively looking for a job, this is all I do is look for a job," Wiggins said.
More than four months later, when Wiggins logs onto her unemployment account, it says "eligible," but she has yet to receive a penny of the benefits designated for this very purpose.
“Where is the money? Yeah. What are they doing with our money? It's not their money. It's the constituents. I mean, it's us, the people. And we're all hurting," Wiggins said.
Elizabeth Szasz is another single mom trying to connect with the Florida Department of Commerce for benefits.
"The 1-800 number that you call, that they give you, you can absolutely never get through," Szasz said. "There's not an option to hold or leave a message. It hangs up on you. You cannot send an email to anyone. You can't send a chat message."
Szasz emailed Governor DeSantis' office before contacting the I-Team.
"No response. I’ve emailed my representative a few times with an automated email response, but no actual follow-up," Szasz said.
Szasz applied for unemployment in mid-November for the first time.
"My life, you know, was turned upside down in a minute," Szasz told the I-Team. “I was working at a wholesale tropical plant company.”
Szasz had worked there for six years before she said new management took over.
Szasz described the Department of Commerce as "convoluted."
“It is, in my opinion, purposely set up to confuse people, to delay, to make them give up," she said. “I've been told by reps that I've gotten on the phone, 'Well, there's 30,000+ other people waiting.' And I’m like, okay, well, who's taking care of that? Like, what are they waiting on?”
“Our reemployment assistance program is a mess," Cindy Huddleston said.
Huddleston, with the Florida Policy Institute, pointed to Florida having one of the lowest recipiency rates in the country, currently second only to Kentucky, in the percentage of people unemployed who actually receive benefits. Florida also has among the lowest benefits—maximum $275 a week, and duration—maximum 12 weeks.
“We’re a state that says that we value work, but we’re not putting our money where our mouth is when it comes to the unemployment program," Huddleston said. “If we don’t do something soon, it will be a completely inefficient program. And Florida workers deserve more than that.”
Szasz said people can't keep waiting.
“Everybody knows your bills come every 30 days. Rent, electric, gas, car payment, car insurance, everything comes 30 days. So everything that you've worked so hard for, you can lose in exactly that amount of time," Szasz said.
The I-Team asked what she wants lawmakers to know.
“I want them to actually look at the system and fix it," Szasz said. “We actually have to have the people who are in charge of it come in and make the changes that really need to be made.”
The I-Team has called and emailed the Department of Commerce numerous times over the last two months, requesting interviews, asking for clarity and working to get answers, reaching out to people in the communications department whose salaries are paid for by your tax dollars to provide information. They have yet to do so.
The I-Team is continuing to send the names and information we receive to the state to work to get you the help you need. We've heard from some Floridians who are now getting their unemployment check after the I-Team reached out.
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