Residents pack meeting on Gompers Park encampment, demand city get clear it and finding housing

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Residents around Gompers Park on the city's Far Northwest Side demanded officials find help and housing so they can clear an encampment of unhoused people in the park at a Monday night meeting.

The meeting was packed with neighbors who said they've been raising concerns for months after a surge of people experiencing homelessness started camping in the park.

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"We had a wetland that has beautiful birds that come to it. That is all going away," said Gail Beitez of the Restore Gompers Park Coalition.

The potential solutions were split as hundreds filled the Salvation Army to talk about their growing concerns.

"Just because someone is forced to live on the street does not mean they deserve to be treated with less dignity and concern than anyone else who happened to be housed," said unhoused advocate Ali simmons.

"We have over 450 signatures on our petition," said Lisa Stringer, Restore Gompers Park Coalition. "We went door-to-door. We met people in the park. It is our neighbors that have banded together to sign this to say we need an A.M.E. now. These people need city services."

Members of the Restore Gompers Park Coalition said there is visible drug use and contamination of the park's bodies of waters, keeping neighbors out.

"During monthly cleanups conducted by the Chicago Parks District and Department of Family and Support Services, they have uncovered used drug needles, knives hidden in trees and shrubs, scores of alcohol containers," said another resident speaking at the meeting.

"It's a deplorable living situation. There's no running water, restrooms. They're washing their clothes and themselves in the river, in the lagoon, in the wetland," Beitez said.

Ald. Samantha Nugent, who represents the 39th Ward, has been a proponent for the group's efforts.

"I'm disappointed we have not been given an Accelerated Moving Event," she said.

The city's Chief Homelessness Officer Sendy Soto said resources are being worked on.

"If there was a space for them in our shelter, or affordable housing, or if they even chose to go there even if there was a space, then they would not be at the park, but being homeless is not a criminal activity," said Soto.

One person against the move to dismantle the encampment without proper housing was escorted out, but his message resonated with others.

"We don't want criminalization to be part of the solution in this encampment. We don't believe that displacing people an effective solution or a wise choice of public resources," said James Kowalsky with 39th Ward Neighbors United.

At this time, there are no plans for the city to clear the encampment at Gompers Park, but city officials say they are working with some of the unhoused there on an individual basis.