Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson launches unified shelter system as migrant shelter population wanes

Jake Sheridan, Chicago Tribune on Dec 20, 2024

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

CHICAGO — Mayor Brandon Johnson moved ahead Friday on his plan to close Chicago’s migrant shelters and fold them into the city’s existing system for homeless residents.

The so-called “One Shelter” system will combine shelters that have long served the city’s homeless with several facilities launched to care for the more than 50,000 migrants who came to Chicago since August 2022. The shift, announced in September and finally carried out just days before the Christmas holiday, marks the end of the city’s migrant crisis response.

“That period has almost come to a close,” Deputy Mayor for Immigration Beatriz Ponce de León said at a Friday news conference. “It doesn’t mean it might not happen again, but given border policies, the limits at the border, we’re just not seeing people crossing in high numbers and therefore they’re not being sent to Chicago.”

This time a year ago, around 15,000 migrants — many sent by bus from Texas against the city’s wishes — were living in 28 Chicago shelters, according to city data. But that population has plummeted in recent months. It stood at 2,476 people at six migrant shelters on Friday, according to the city.

The Department of Family and Support Services’ new combined system will add 3,800 beds at five shelters to the 3,000 beds in its current system. Shelter residents will not face time limits on their stay as migrants do now. The shelters will be run by local groups like Catholic Charities that won a competitive bidding process, DFSS deputy commissioner Maura McCauley said.

The city closed its migrant “landing zone” Thursday and on Friday opened a new “shelter placement and resource center” set to serve adults contending with homelessness, McCauley said. That always-open Pilsen headquarters will have 200 beds and provide those in need with clothes and meals as it connects migrants and Chicagoans alike to other shelters, McCauley added.

The new system will also include a $2 million emergency rental assistance program, while the state will add another $2 million earmarked for helping to move “new arrivals” out of shelter beds and into communities, McCauley said.

However, the city will not track how many of the system’s residents are migrants, Ponce de León said. City officials announced that on Friday morning they would stop collecting such data, shared for months with media.

“We’re no longer in that crisis state. We don’t need to make those distinctions. And everyone in the new system will be under the same policy,” she said. “There’s no need to collect that data.”

Johnson has repeatedly said he will not cooperate with President-elect Donald Trump’s plans for mass deportations. Ponce de León said the city is working on guidance for what shelter staff should do if federal agents arrive to carry out deportation raids and plans to connect residents to legal assistance.

____