Chicago Residents File Lawsuit to Stop City from Using Public Buildings to House Illegals

Residents in the South Shore community of Chicago filed a lawsuit on September 26th to stop the city from housing illegals in public buildings such as police stations and schools.

The residents filed a prior lawsuit in May which sought to stop illegals from being housed specifically at the former South Shore High School in their community.

The city ultimately determined they would not use the South Shore site and the residents voluntarily dropped the lawsuit.

But as the flood of illegals continues, and more and more public buildings are being used for the benefit of non-citizens, the South Shore residents filed an updated, broader lawsuit in Cook County.

The new lawsuit argues that the use of public buildings to house illegals is a nuisance to the community and the city is also violating zoning ordinances by using public areas.

Additionally, the suit calls for an audit of city funding used for illegals and related housing.

While Chicago has spent over $100M to care for illegals arriving in the city thanks to Joe Biden’s broken border, thus far, officials won’t provide transparency on how the money is being spent.

The city of Chicago’s finance department recently denied a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for copies of a year’s worth of invoices related to more than $57 million spent on a staffing company that has a contract with the city to provide staffing in shelters.

The city claimed, “The burden of redacting records ‘outweighs public interest in the information.’”

The Chicago Sun-Times reports on the new lawsuit:

The new lawsuit adds claims that the move to turn police stations into makeshift shelters, where migrants have been sleeping on floors for months, violates federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards.

“They should not be in parks and floors and schools. They should be in residential housing, whether that’s hotels or hostels or apartments or houses or some kind of group living facility,” Avila told the Sun-Times. “It’s not sanitary, it’s not residential living, it’s not humane for the people living there.”

Some people in South Shore, along with residents in other neighborhoods such as Woodlawn, feel they have been excluded from providing input on the city’s plan to use public buildings for migrant housing.

In the Roseland community residents gathered to express concerns over plans to house as many as 1,400 illegals in a tent “base camp” in an empty grocery store parking lot.

Tempers flared at a meeting on Chicago’s Southside over plans to reestablish a migrant shelter at The Lake Shore Hotel in the Hyde Park area of the city.

Community members are concerned about the noise, cleanliness and drug use that they say was prevalent when it served as a shelter.