The city is working to bring two new migrant shelters online, which is good as Southern governors continue to send asylum seekers to Chicago by the busload.
About half of the 13,500 migrants sent here since last year have been placed in temporary shelters, and around 1,500 are still sleeping in police stations and airports as they await shelter space the Sun-Times reported last week.
But that’s twice as many people than were sleeping in those places last month.
And that number could very well increase over the next year if Southern GOP governors send even larger numbers of migrants here in an attempt to embarrass the city as it hosts the 2024 Democratic National Convention next August.
What’s needed? As the city handles the contingencies of the migrant housing situation, it must also develop a plan that addresses the issue on a permanent basis.
Creating this plan means a full-court press that brings in alderpersons, the departments of housing, planning, health and human services, relevant nonprofits and philanthropic organizations, and more.
They should be armed with an inventory of city-owned buildings and available privately owned structures as well.
‘Give it to us in writing’
The city last week announced plans to house migrants at the Lake Shore Hotel, 4900B S. Lake Shore Drive in the Kenwood neighborhood, and old United States Marine Corps Facility, 3034 W. Foster Ave., in the North Park community.
The City Council’s Committee on Housing and Real Estate last Monday approved buying the Marine Corps property for $1.5 million.
But Ald. David Moore (17th), who voted against the measure, wanted a full plan on how the city would handle the migrant situation.
“Give it to us in writing,” he said. “Then I won’t have this issue.”
Moore has a point. So did Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20th), who said she wanted more details about how much running the facility would cost the city.
These are basic questions, and neither elected officials nor the public should be kept in the dark about the answers.
The city also did not respond to requests for comment on its plan to move the migrants from police stations and other temporary shelters.
Ald. Desmon Yancy (5th) wasn’t consulted before officials moved to house migrants at the Lake Shore Hotel in his ward — and had to hastily call a public meeting for his constituents once he found out. Migrants are expected to arrive there this week.
“My concern is making sure the community is brought into the room,” Yancy said.
In short, the city — quite incorrectly — is saying very little when it should be as open and transparent as possible.
A better way
Chicago and other big cities are looking to the federal government for funding to handle the migrant influx.
“Let me state this clearly: The city of Chicago cannot go on welcoming new arrivals safely and capably without significant support and immigration policy changes,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said at a news conference last Wednesday.
The feds haven’t sent any money, but they are starting to look at how cities are handling the inflow of migrants.
The Department of Homeland Security warned New York City and state officials last week that it found “structural and operational issues” in how the Big Apple has responded to the migrant situation.
About 100,000 migrants have been bused to New York since 2022.
A DHS team visited shelters and talked to local officials and found “the structural issues include governance and organization of the migrant operations, including issues of authority, structure, personnel, and information flow,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas wrote in letters to New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, the New York Times reported.
The letter didn’t give specifics, however. But Chicago should take note that Big Government is watching.
Migrants shouldn’t remain sleeping in cop stations and airports. And the city has to move beyond its current process of opening shelters in communities — which for now is essentially yelling “surprise!” at the last minute.
Maybe a solution could be to create a new city department for immigrant affairs, imbued with the power to marshal together city agencies and civic leaders to tackle this issue and guide things smoothly in the aftermath.
Or the path could be more direct, with Johnson pulling together his team and non-government city leaders and making the creation of a plan — plus keeping the public apprised and at the table during its development — a priority.
Whatever the pathway, Chicago can and must do better.
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