LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- For a third straight day, hundreds of people lined up Thursday in Frankfort to get in-person help with their unemployment claims.Â
People started lining up at the Cabinet for Health and Family Services headquarters in Frankfort well before the doors opened at 9 a.m. The state opened the in-person center after news of a planned protest Tuesday. After the heavy turnout on Tuesday, Gov. Andy Beshear announced Wednesday that additional in-person services would continue to be offered again on Thursday, June 18, and Friday, June 19, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.Â
Since then, the facility has been overwhelmed with people.Â
"This morning, I got up at 4 in Lexington and decided to make the trip up here to see if I could get some help,"Â Niki Fairchild said.
The unemployment checks stopped coming in for the EKU sign language interpreter after a couple weeks. "You have bills that just keep piling up and piling up, and now bill collectors need their money. You want to keep the lights on. You want to pay for groceries," she said.
Like many, Fairchild arrived to the new location Thursday after being turned away Wednesday, when people spent hours in line as temperatures hovered near 90 degrees. The line wrapped around the Capitol parking lot, and by 9:45 a.m. Kentucky State Police had cut it off, saying they couldn't serve any more people.Â
Some people drove for hours, only to find out that they arrived too late to be seen that day. James Barry made a nearly 4-hour drive from Paducah, but didn't make it in time. "I'm pretty angry, very angry," he said. "I filed March 27."
People who filed claims in March are being given priority, and there was a separate line for those claimants.Â
The pandemic overwhelmed the Commonwealth's system with too many claims and too few people to process them. The governor said of nearly 900,000 claims, 52,000 are still pending from March to May.Â
Program is being made, with the lines moving. "With a few clicks of a button, five minutes, I was good. So, the funds should be released in the next couple of days. Thank the Lord. That's so exciting," Fairchild said.
Although the Cabinet for Health and Family Services headquarters is open until 6 p.m., people who weren't in line by noon are most likely too late. Workers passed out white slips of paper to everyone already in line, and they were ones who received help on Thursday.
The facility will open again Friday, June 19, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Â
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