Chicago evicts migrants from shelters

Citing limited resources, the city of Chicago announced that it began to evict migrants based on a 60-day limit policy to make room for new arrivals.

The city said that 34 migrants would be the first group to be evicted on Sunday, but as of Monday, only three were turned away. The other 31 were given temporary extensions.

The 60-day limit policy has been held off due to the cold winter, and it will be applied to healthy adults first, according to the city. Some exceptions are applied — pregnant women, people with health issues or in the process of securing a place to live can apply for an extension of another 30 days. Families with children in school can stay until June, when school will be out.

About 11,000 migrants are housed in 23 shelters throughout Chicago, according to The New York Times, The city has received more than 37,000 migrants since August 2022.

Chicago officials said that by the end of March, 250 migrants will be evicted, and by the end of April more than 2,000. The city anticipates that more than 2,000 new migrants could stay in shelters through April.

Many volunteers are helping the migrants to enroll their children in school and to fill paperwork for work permission. Some local families — hundreds of them — have also been hosting migrants.

The evicted migrants can reapply for shelters under the policy. However, the city said that 80 percent of evicted adults end up finding solutions elsewhere instead of seeking to remain in the shelters.

Some migrants in the shelter worry about the prospect after their stay at the shelters comes to an end.

Many volunteers say this policy isn't a good idea.

"I don't believe the city should be in the business of evicting people," Chicago's 40th Ward Alderman Andre Vasquez told ABC television. "Especially those that don't have shelter, don't have work authorization, don't have rental assistance."

Even though families with children can have an extension until school is on break, Vasquez asked what happens after school is out? "Now those families are going to be out homeless."

Other cities with large numbers of migrants also are moving migrants out of shelters.

In New York City on Tuesday, roughly 40 migrant families were moved out of a Midtown Manhattan hotel as part of Mayor Eric Adams' plan to ease the pressure on the city's strained shelter system by imposing a 60-day limit on shelter stays. 

The families that left Row NYC, in the heart of the city's Theater District, are the first of scores of families that are expected to leave city shelters in the coming weeks, The Associated Press reported.

Some of those leaving on Tuesday immediately reapplied for beds, while others said they had managed to find accommodations outside of the system, AP reported. 

Adams imposed the limit in October for homeless migrant families, saying it was necessary to relieve a shelter system that houses more than 170,000 migrants, according to officials.

In February, Denver, which has received about 40,000 migrants, began to clear them from hotels that it rented to house them temporarily, according to the Times. That month, it reinstated time limits for city-provided hotels after pausing evictions in November because of the cold. Stays are up to 14 days for adults without children and 42 days for families.

On Monday, the Progressive Reform Caucus of 19 members on the Chicago City Council issued a statement urging Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to immediately end the evictions policy.

"It risks contributing to the city's unhoused population and exacerbating social and racial tension at a time when we need to unite," the caucus said in a statement.

The caucus also wants Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and state lawmakers to provide funding for up to six months of rental assistance for newly arrived migrants and wants President Joe Biden to issue an executive order issuing work permits for all new arrivals.

Meanwhile, a group of Gage Park residents gathered outside a fieldhouse-turned-shelter Sunday to protest that their facility was turned into shelter about six months ago.

"It seems like it's indefinite, and we don't know when we're coming back," resident Tiffony Stepney-Davis told ABC. "My daughter was a participant in the special recreation program, and she got relocated to McKinley Park. She was at the park for 14 years before the program was relocated."