Debate over controversial homeless encampment boils over in wake of fatal shooting

CHICAGO — After weeks of the ward’s alderman asking Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration to remove a West Loop homeless encampment struggling with safety issues, a man was shot and killed Thursday, adding fuel to an already contentious debate.

Officers responded to the intersection of North Clinton Street and West Lake Street at 12:50 a.m. and found an unresponsive man who’d been shot in the chest. He was transported to Stroger Hospital in critical condition and was later pronounced dead, police said.

Debate over tent encampments in the area stretches back beyond the recent controversy to the administration of then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot. In October 2022, activists resisted when the city sought to temporarily move newly donated winterized tents in the area for sidewalk cleaning.

“What was once a peaceful homeless encampment has turned into a magnet for drug dealing, violent crime and now a fatal shooting,” Ald. Bill Conway, 34th, said at a news conference Thursday afternoon, held across the street from the encampment as the people who lived in the tents milled around.

The site has become a political hot spot after Conway sought the support of Johnson’s administration to get the tents removed. Top Johnson adviser Jason Lee tied an offer to help to Conway’s votes on the approval of a referendum for an increased real estate transfer tax on properties over $1 million to help fund citywide homeless services and an ordinance ending subminimum wage for tipped restaurant workers, Conway told the Chicago Tribune in mid-November.

Lee acknowledged linking the issue of the camps with votes for the marquee Johnson policies, but defended it as an appropriate deal and said police would continue to respond to the encampments. Conway ultimately voted against the real estate transfer tax referendum.

Conway said the initial information his office received suggests Thursday’s fatal shooting was linked to an argument involving drugs. The Chicago Police Department did not describe drug involvement in its initial statement on the shooting. Detectives are investigating, police said.

The 59-year-old man who died has not yet been publicly identified, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

The block is one of several locations under downtown viaducts where people sleep in tents lining the sidewalks. While Conway acknowledged there are safe and peaceful encampments in other parts of Chicago, he said at the news conference that ongoing and visible drug use have made the West Loop encampment irremediable.

“This used to be a peaceful homeless encampment,” he said, gesturing to the tents under a viaduct on Lake Street. “Those things exist certainly, but this is very far removed from that situation.”

Last week, a 19-year-old man was arrested with an estimated $60,000 in drugs and a gun on the same block, the 500 block of West Lake Street, according to police. At least four armed robberies and four shootings have occurred near the camps since early October, according to Conway’s office.

In the last year, violent crime victimizations have risen 42.5% in the two police beats closest to the shooting’s location, largely fueled by a doubling in the number of robbery victimizations, police data shows.

Johnson spokesperson Ronnie Reese said the Police Department is actively engaged in the area

“The City of Chicago is committed to the security of all residents, including individuals experiencing homelessness who deserve the same measure of dignity and respect as everyone else in our city,” Reese said in a statement Thursday.

The city must take the complex nature of the encampments into consideration as it responds to them, in part by responding to individuals’ needs for medical care, mental health service and treatment for substance use, he said.

“Before any movement or cleaning of encampments, the City must ensure that these individuals are safe and connected with the social services resources they need,” Reese said.

In mid-November, around 1,500 area residents signed a petition calling for the mayor’s office to remove tents from the area’s sidewalks, citing safety issues. Last Friday, the mayor’s office responded to the petition, stating its goals to reduce unsheltered homelessness, ensure public safety at encampments and prevent them from growing.

“Homelessness is not illegal and our assistance is not enforcement-based, though we partner with the Chicago Police Department and they may address criminal activity at encampment locations including this location,” said the letter, signed by Deputy Mayors Jennifer Johnson and Garien Gatewood.

“We strive to balance the rights and safety of all residents regardless of their housing status,” the letter continued.

The letter, shared with the Tribune by Conway’s office, also detailed efforts to connect unhoused people to shelter and said the city has removed 11 tents at the site since July, including five removals between September and October related to “public safety issues.”

Conway called the mayor’s response to the resident’s petition “a tone deaf” and “stock form” letter at the news conference. When asked where the people residing in the tents could be sheltered, Conway said the city has plenty of housing. The residents have not taken housing offered by the city, he said.

“There is rapid rehousing available,” Conway said. “I know there is availability and if any one of the people here said, ‘I would like shelter,’ they would have shelter tonight.”

The city is currently struggling to house thousands of people without shelter as it continues to grapple with the influx of thousands of asylum-seekers from Venezuela and other countries.

Conway had been working with City Hall departments, including Streets and Sanitation and Family and Support Services, to address the homeless camps under the viaducts but said he recently learned plans to remove tents were canceled by the mayor’s office in October. City officials disputed that there were final plans in place.

Conway previously said he referred the matter to the city’s Office of Inspector General.

A handful of West Loop residents joined Conway on Thursday to express their disappointment in the mayor’s response to their safety concerns over the encampment.

Louise Parrin lives two blocks north of the encampment and said she noticed a change in the safety of the area a year ago, when tents began to crowd the sidewalks so much so that a person couldn’t walk by. Around that time she also saw drug activity taking place in broad daylight.

“I used to walk there, but I don’t anymore. I’ll go the long way,” she said.

Parrin noted that West Loop neighbors are also concerned about the danger of the tent cities for the people who live in them.

“This isn’t about removing the homeless and not being supportive of the homeless who live in this area,” Parrin said. “We’re very supportive of the homeless and we want them to find housing. It’s really not safe for them either.”

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