City considers Brighton Park vacant lot as a possible site for migrant tent encampment
The city of Chicago is evaluating a plot of land in Brighton Park as a possible site for winterized tents to house recently arrived migrants, Ald. Julia Ramirez, 12th, confirmed.
“This is all very preliminary,” Ramirez said Saturday when asked about the site at 38th Street and California Avenue. “They’re assessing the lot to prepare for winterized tents.”
Ramirez declined to give further details on the proposed site, which was first reported by CBS 2 News.
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s controversial proposal to erect tent encampments around the city to house migrants has been met with opposition from residents as well as some of his own City Council allies.
The city has provided no details on where the camps would be located. Johnson last month asked Chicago’s 50 aldermen to identify two to three pieces of land in their wards that could be suitable locations for base camps. Johnson’s deputy chief of staff, Christina Pacione-Zayas, said Thursday that only about a quarter of the 50 aldermen had fulfilled that request.
Pacione-Zayas did not elaborate on which aldermen have cooperated.
“We’ve had some of them that understood the assignment,” Pacione-Zayas said. “We’ve had others that, with their back against the wall, have now offered up things, but it’s a work in progress.”
The city is scrambling to find more permanent housing solutions for asylum-seekers being bused to Chicago from the southern border as the notoriously cold Chicago winter approaches. Many migrants are being temporarily housed in police stations and the city’s two airports.
According to a daily census from the Office of Emergency Management and Communications, 3,319 migrants were waiting in police districts as of Saturday morning — many sleeping in their own tents outside the stations — while another 494 were being sheltered at O’Hare International Airport and Midway Airport.
The city is contracting with the private security firm GardaWorld Federal Services to build and run the base camps.
GardaWorld and its subsidiary Aegis Defense Services signed a one-year agreement for $29.4 million with the city on Sept. 12. The city contract calls for GardaWorld to provide “emergency logistics management and operation services that will set up shelter … and other necessary services (also called ‘a base camp’ or ‘solution’)” for the new arrivals.”
Details on the encampments are scarce, but the contract outlines plans for soft-material “yurt” structures that would each hold 12 cots and be outfitted with portable restrooms and makeshift kitchens close by. Every yurt would be equipped with fire extinguishers, lighting and smoke and carbon monoxide alarms.
Where and how to shelter recently arrived asylum-seekers has ignited controversy across Chicago. Some Black residents and aldermen have questioned the use of city resources on new arrivals when longtime city residents have had to fight for public resources in their neighborhoods while aldermen who represent downtown areas have said they’re concerned about how sheltering migrants downtown could affect tourism.
Johnson’s proposed budget for the coming year allocates $150 million in funding for migrants while Gov. J.B. Pritzker and House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch said the state was unlikely to kick additional dollars to the city during the fall veto session. City and state officials have called on the federal government to send more money to Chicago and Illinois to help respond to the influx of migrants.
A mayoral spokesman declined to comment on the Brighton Park site.
