Asylum-seekers expected to return to hostel in Greektown
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A Greektown hostel is expected for the second time in a year to house migrants as Chicago officials continue trying to cope with busloads of asylum-seekers being sent here.
Ald. Bill Conway, 34th, said Monday he got about a one-week notice from Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration that about 190 migrants will be given shelter at the Parthenon Guest House in the 300 block of South Halsted Street.
The hostel housed asylum-seekers from the fall of 2022 until February, and “it went well,” Conway said. But the city needs a better approach than the seemingly patchwork, reactive response to the “humanitarian crisis” that has been unfolding since Texas Gov. Greg Abbott began busing migrants from there to Chicago a little more than a year ago, he said.
“I’m disappointed and frustrated in the way the mayor’s office is handling it, but at this point we do have to find shelter for people,” he said.
Conway said he intends to hold a community meeting Wednesday to try to assuage the concerns of neighbors who are worried and have cited recent reports that other similar city-run shelters have drawn fights and drug use. The Johnson administration told Conway that asylum-seekers will begin to arrive at the hostel Friday, he said.
The alderman said he asked the Johnson administration for more time to prepare residents and others in the neighborhood for the arriving migrants, but was told that wasn’t possible.
“I initially said, ‘Hey, can we back this up a week?’ And they said yes, initially. Then they called me back the next day and said they could not back it up another week,” Conway said.
When Abbott started sending busloads of asylum-seekers to Chicago and other cities far from the nation’s southern border, he argued that places with policies establishing them as “sanctuary cities” should welcome the migrants. Since then, more than 13,500 asylum-seekers have arrived here, stretching city resources often beyond their breaking point.
Tension between City Hall and aldermen and residents has been a near-constant feature of the city’s response to the situation.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot drew the ire of Ald. Jeanette Taylor, 20th, and Woodlawn neighborhood residents for taking steps to turn the former Wadsworth Elementary School into a shelter for up to 1,000 migrants.
Johnson’s administration also has been criticized for how it’s rolled out new shelter announcements, including at the Broadway Armory in Edgewater and at the Lake Shore Hotel in Kenwood. Ald. Desmon Yancy, 5th, complained that City Hall didn’t consult the community.
Since the first asylum-seekers arrived in August 2022, city officials have considered more than 200 sites for temporary housing, including the former Englewood Whole Foods, a Mars factory on the West Side that’s closing, a Veterans Affairs hospital building and vacant schools and movie theaters. At times, the city has housed migrants in the basement of the Harold Washington Library Center.
The city also has repeatedly placed migrants in government-owned buildings, most notably police stations, and then relocated them to private hotels and hostels. In November, the city moved asylum-seekers from the North Town Branch Library to the Greektown hostel.
In April, the city took migrants from Truman College and sent them to a shelter in the Loop. The city has repeatedly sent migrants to Leone Beach Park field house in West Ridge, removed them and then brought them back.
