Under pressure from City Council members, Mayor Brandon Johnson day pushed back — until mid-March at the earliest — the city’s plan to evict migrants living in the city’s 28 shelters after 60 days.
Nearly 2,000 people were set to be evicted had the policy been enforced as planned beginning Thursday. That number was expected to grow to about 6,000 people by the following week. Evicted migrants would have been able to reapply for shelter.
On Monday, Johnson postponed the day of reckoning under pressure from more than a dozen alderpersons.
“We initially instituted the 60-day limit in conjunction with the state’s announcement of additional resources for resettlement and case management because our plan for temporary emergency shelter was never meant as a long-term housing solution. But, we want to give every person and every single family that has come to our city enough time to process their work authorization, find housing, start a new life in our great city,” Johnson said.
“So we have made the decision to extend the shelter stay policy based on original exit dates from mid-January through the end of March. We will continue to assess this developing situation as we move through these winter months.”
Family and Support Services Commissioner Brandie Knazze said the 28 emergency shelters Chicago has opened for nearly 14,000 new arrivals were “built on the premise that shelter stays would be short-term.”
She further refined the mayor’s decision to postpone the 60-day eviction policy.
“Due to the extreme cold weather Chicago experienced over the last two weeks, we extended the exit dates for new arrivals who were set to leave shelter throughout the month of January. The new 60-day exit policy is as follows: Residents who have an exit date between Jan. 16 and Feb. 29 will be given a 60-day extension starting from their original exit date. For example, if an individual was scheduled to leave on Jan. 16, their new exit date is March 16. There are approximately 5,673 people who fall into this category,” she said.
“Residents who received a 60-day notice and were scheduled to exit shelter on March 1st and March 28th will receive a 30-day extension from their planned exit date. There are approximately 2,119 individuals who fall into this category. Anyone new who has entered the shelter system starting today will receive the standard, 60-day notice.”
Under questioning at Monday’s news conference, Johnson said what’s driving the 60-day eviction policy that he now plans to implement in late winter or early spring is the fact that the $1.5 million-a-day that Chicago is spending will exhaust the $150 million appropriated for the migrant crisis for all of 2024 will run out in 100 days.
“We also want to make sure that we are doing our due diligence to be responsible stewards of our resources,” he said.
“Being responsible with the resources that we have — that’s my fiduciary” responsibility.
“Make no mistake about it: Unless the federal government invests in this mission, a local municipality is not designed to carry this mission, yet somehow we’ve managed. But, it’s not sustainable.”
Johnson noted that before he ordered the 60-day eviction policy, “There were still people in shelter from 2022. It’s temporary emergency shelter. ... It was never meant to be permanent shelter.”
He refused to say what the city would do when the $150 million runs out, just as top mayoral aides refused to during City Council hearings on his $16.77 billion 2024 budget.
Last week, more than a dozen alderpersons signed a letter urging Johnson to at least delay evictions until it’s warm outside and instead focus on helping migrants become independent.
“I don’t think it should happen, but it’s very clear it shouldn’t happen during the winter,” said Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th), chairman of the Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
“If the policy were to continue, and people don’t have a place to go, and they don’t have work authorization, it will contribute to the homelessness problem,” he said, “adding to the people living in parks and under viaducts.”
Fear of being evicted has caused tremendous anxiety among migrants in shelters.
One mother at a shelter whose family arrived too late to access the state rental assistance program worried that without being able to legally work and without knowing someone else in Chicago, they would end up on the street.
“It’s clear to me that we’ll get no type of help here,” she said, asking her name not be used for fear of retaliation.
Help with work authorizations has also been limited.
Ald. Bill Conway (34th), another signatory, has organized legal aid clinics for hundreds of migrants in downtown shelters to facilitate that resettlement.
However, that process takes a long time — often longer than 60 days — and isn’t an option for everyone.
The alderperson called for a clearer plan than the patchwork assistance many migrants have received so far.
The letter also calls for improving shelter conditions, alleging that many migrants find the food inedible, there are rodent and bedbug infestations, and medical care has been scarce.
The death of 5-year-old Jean Carlos “Jeremías” Martinez Rivero in December heightened scrutiny of shelter conditions.
Carrying out the evictions will reinforce the kind of desperate mindset volunteers such as Jaime Groth Searle have been trying to help calm.
“They’re not in a headspace to think about safety, they’re thinking about where am I going to get my next meal, keep my kids warm, get my next $50,” Groth Searle said. “We’re trying to get them out of survival mode and get back to going to school, seeing a doctor — those normal things people do.”
Groth Searle volunteers outside the Pilsen shelter and said without more robust case work, many migrants are panicking as they near the end of their stay and don’t know what to do.
That period in shelters could be an opportunity, Ald. Gil Villegas (36th) said, for the city and state to provide educational help, like English classes.
“They’re not going anywhere,” said Villegas, who also signed the letter. “Let’s figure out some way to assimilate them, get them out of the shadows of being undocumented and allow them to be participants in our society.”
The Northwest Side City Council member said shelter openings could be used to develop community centers, as is the plan with at least one North Side shelter.
“Here’s an opportunity to make some investments that, long term, are going to pay dividends for Chicago,” he said.
“Unfortunately the previous administration did not take this up,” Villegas said. “But I think the current one could.”
Contributing: Michael Loria