Oak Park, which has been providing shelter for migrants, will require them to move out of hotel, YMCA by Jan. 31
All migrants housed in two locations in Oak Park will be required to move out by Jan. 31, village officials disclosed Wednesday.
The approximately 160 people at The Carleton of Oak Park hotel and the West Cook YMCA are to be notified of the eviction date this week. They will be asked to work with a case manager or village staff to find new shelter and possibly move them to another city or state if they have stable housing there, according to a memo from the village Emergency Operations Center.
For anyone who can’t find shelter, the village will help relocate them to the Chicago shelter program, the memo states. Migrants who arrived in the U.S. before July 31, 2023, may be eligible for temporary protected status. More information for asylum-seekers is provided on the village website.
In contrast to several other suburbs, Oak Park had declared an emergency to provide lodging for the migrants, but officials said the effort is unsustainable.
“It’s an unfortunate situation,” village Trustee Ravi Parakkat said. “We’re not leading them anywhere. It’s just housing in a temporary shelter, which doesn’t get them closer to any of the reasons they made their trek to this country. We’re spending money with no resolution in sight.”
Ultimately, village officials agreed, only the larger governments of Chicago, the state of Illinois, and the federal government have the capacity to address migration issues.
The village’s emergency funding authorization, mostly from state and local grants, was only through Feb. 6, the coldest part of the winter, and it was never clear where the migrants would go after that.
The village authorized about $1 million, to house migrants in the hotel, YMCA and a church.
A Dec. 7 village memo states that buses of asylum-seekers that don’t give prior notice of their arrival will be turned away and sent to the designated migrant landing zone in Chicago. No such vehicles have arrived in Oak Park so far, village spokesman Dan Yopchick said.
“The village does not have the capacity to accept additional new arrivals,” he wrote to the Tribune. “Anyone who comes into Oak Park seeking shelter is redirected to the city of Chicago landing zone as set forth in the memo.”
The village was confronted about what to do on Halloween night, after volunteers brought migrants to the Oak Park police station from the nearby police station in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood, where many migrants had been sleeping outside. About 20 migrants found housing at Grace Episcopal Church.
Officials hope that nonprofit groups such as Housing Forward will be able to find those being displaced with more permanent housing, but no site has been publicly identified.
Village Manager Kevin Jackson directed the bus policy, but it would take Village Board action to authorize any further accommodations by the village, and there is no more funding earmarked for that now, Village President Vicki Scaman said.
She was hopeful of getting some of the $8 million state migrant grant that Joliet Township rejected after backlash from residents there. There have also been concerns raised by trustees and residents in Oak Park about spending for the migrants, while the needs of Blacks, homeless and veterans in the area go unmet.
Other suburbs such as Rosemont, Cicero, Schaumburg and Elk Grove Village have passed ordinances to fine or impound buses dropping off migrants, or to prevent their hotels from being used for long-term migrant housing.
Oak Park officials aren’t looking to levy fines, but the village is at capacity, Scaman said.
Following record migration across the nation’s southern border, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and charities have bused thousands of migrants seeking asylum to Chicago. City officials are struggling to find places to shelter them.
Illinois has budgeted at least $160 million for the migrants in Chicago, but local officials are pleading for more funding and coordination.
