Mayor Brandon Johnson avoided further outrage from migrants, their supporters, and the Chicago City Council by postponing shelter evictions until March.
The shelter evictions, which typically come 60 days after arrival, were set to take effect on Thursday. Johnson announced on Tuesday that the removals will now be put off again ahead of a City Council hearing and days before thousands of asylum-seekers would have been forced to leave the city-run shelters.
“We have made the decision to extend the shelter stay policy based on original exit dates from mid-January through the end of March,” Johnson said at a City Hall news conference via the Chicago Tribune.
Migrants who originally received an eviction notice between Jan. 16 and Feb. 29 will now be given a 60-day extension from their original date. Brandie Knazze, head of the Chicago Department of Family and Support Services, said that 5,673 people who were scheduled to leave on Jan. 16 now have a new move-out date of March 16.
The 2,119 migrants who were scheduled for shelter eviction between March 1 and March 28 will receive a 30-day extension. Anyone who began entering the shelter following the announcement on Tuesday would receive a standard 60-day eviction notice. The 5,910 new arrivals who entered the migrant shelter system between Aug. 1 and Nov. 16, 2023, will receive their 60-day notice starting Feb. 1.
The controversial decision to evict the migrants on Feb. 1 came soon after the city disbanded its plan to create new shelters, citing high costs. Over a dozen aldermen, including Johnson allies who typically supported Johnson’s handling of the Chicago migrant crisis, called on Johnson to scrap his 60-day limit policy last week over concerns about the frigid weather and lack of resources to support the migrants. It marked one of the first times since Johnson had taken office that he received pushback from council members of his own party.
In the letter sent last week, the aldermen claimed the 60-day eviction policy posed “a significant threat to the health and safety of new arrivals” and did not address “systemic issues” regarding alternative housing for migrants once they leave the shelters.
Alderman Andre Vasquez, who is chairman of the city’s immigration committee and one of the co-signers of the letter, told the Chicago Tribune he approved of the mayor’s delay of the eviction process.
“We’re leading from the front as a city,” he said, adding that Johnson’s decision shows “the rest of the country what it is to be a city that lives the values this country claims.” He added that he didn’t see this type of collaboration or listening under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
Vasquez said he and several other City Council members still have concerns over food, language access, and the shelters’ conditions, all of which were listed in the letter, as well. The committee chairman said he hopes the hearing painted a clear picture of “how many grievances have been filed, what kind, and how they’ve been addressed.”
Johnson said on Tuesday that Illinois remains committed to building new shelters and called on the state to create new ones at any sites it is considering, appearing to criticize Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-IL) for a slow start.
“Remember: the state of Illinois committed to 2,200 beds, right? So, so far they have 200. They’re still committed to 2,000 beds. But again, the goal is, of course, to resettle families as fast as we can to make sure that we are able to handle the flow in the event that it picks up again,” the mayor added. “The state of Illinois can move today to build a shelter, and I’m confident that that will take place.”
Since August 2022, 608 buses have arrived from Texas at the direction of Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX), bringing more than 35,000 immigrants into Chicago. During the Tuesday news conference, Johnson pointed to Denver’s 14-day individual limits and 42-day family limits, as well as Massachusetts’s statewide bed limit and New York shelter limits — suggesting that Chicago is being generous compared to other Democratic-run cities facing a similar influx.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Pritzker and Johnson have been at odds over how to handle the migrant crisis in the Windy City for months. The governor had expressed concerns over Chicago’s decision to no longer set up shelter spaces for migrants, while the mayor has blasted Springfield for not taking the authority to set up shelter spaces as promised. As the issue continues to leak into the suburbs, the governor launched a program offering $17 million in additional funding to suburbs that agree to house immigrants.
“There are disagreements, and sometimes those leak into the public,” Pritzker said to reporters on Monday, downplaying the tension between himself and the mayor. “But the reality is, we all understand our responsibilities here, and it is to have a humanitarian response to a humanitarian crisis.”