Residents needing assistance across Miami-Dade County during the coronavirus pandemic will get a new way to apply for needed benefits starting Friday.

The county will start giving out applications for the SNAP food assistance program, the TANF cash assistant program and Medicaid at 26 branch library locations throughout the area.

The forms will be available for pick up in addition to the paper unemployment applications that libraries have handed out for the last two weeks.

With the online system failing many in need across the state, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Giménez says his county’s libraries have handed out 80,000 paper unemployment applications.

Gimenez says the applications will be available in English, Spanish and Creole.

Florida’s Department of Children and Families announced earlier this week that residents will be able to buy groceries online from Walmart or Amazon using the EBT card to pay starting April 21st, helping to minimize exposure to being in public places.

Gimenez wants state and local officials, as well as medical professionals, to look at what conditions need to exist to ease restrictions for parks and open spaces. Leaders in Broward County are also working on a plan on how they can reopen businesses that are struggling to keep afloat.

Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis wrote a letter calling for a “phased approach” to re-opening non-essential businesses, adding that decisions should not be rushed and must be based on recommendations from the medical community.