Chicago’s migrant tent shelter plans on pause

After a fraught, failed attempt to pitch a first tent shelter for migrants in Chicago, the city is pausing other efforts to do so, for now. "

CHICAGO - After a fraught, failed attempt to pitch a first tent shelter for migrants in Chicago, the city is pausing other efforts to do so, for now.

"There are no immediate plans for 115th and Halsted," said mayoral spokesman Ronnie Reese, referring to the Far South Side site in Morgan Park that was the city’s other designated tent shelter location after a site in the Brighton Park neighborhood.

Reese attributed the change to the success of other efforts to house migrants that have brought the number camped out at police stations and at O’Hare Airport down from a couple thousand to several hundred.

"We haven’t retired the idea, but as of right now we’re in much better shape than a few months ago," Reese said. "We’re doing this without the need for base camps."

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These efforts include a recently announced plan to house migrants in churches and increase assistance at the site where the city first receives migrants to either move them outside Chicago or with local sponsors.

Almost 700 migrants were at police stations and O’Hare Airport Monday, about half as many as when the plan was first announced in early September, and 15 of 22 police stations had been cleared of migrants by Monday, according to the Office of Emergency Management and Communications.

The city’s first pick for a tent shelter at 38th Street and California Avenue was nixed last week by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, citing "serious environmental concerns" about the heavy metals and toxic chemicals found at the site.

In announcing its move to halt that plan, the state said it would pivot to brick-and-mortar shelters, including one in Little Village and others at Archdiocese of Chicago properties.

The Southwest Side shelter is inside a former CVS building and is expected to open before Christmas, a state spokesperson said. It’s expected to house 200 people.

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Archdiocese properties expected to open soon include the former St. Bartholomew School in the Portage Park community that’s expected to open in January and house around 350 people.

Last week, Susan Thomas, a spokeswoman for the archdiocese, said it was close to securing a lease with the city that would allow for parish properties to be quickly converted into city-run shelters.