Mayor Brandon Johnson extends deadline for evicting Chicago migrants from city-run shelters
CHICAGO (WLS) -- Hundreds of migrants faced eviction on Feb. 1 from shelters this week as part of the city's 60-day eviction policy, but at the urging of several alderpersons and mutual aid groups, Mayor Brandon Johnson has extended the deadline for a third time.
Mid-March is the new date for the first wave of new arrivals who received eviction notices originally set for January. Only a fraction of the migrants who were facing eviction this week were in the process of finding housing.
"We want to give every person and every single family that come to our city enough time to process work, find housing," Johnson said.
The city said there are more than 5,600 new arrivals who will be evicted on March 16. Checkpoint assessments will be given two weeks before their exit, and there will be exceptions if people need to stay longer.
"The general categories for exceptions that are eligible include progress to permanent or stable housing, severe weather conditions, disability, pregnancy, maternal health, gender based violence or bereavement," said Dept. of Family and Support Services Commissioner Brandie Knazze.
For those thousands of migrants currently housed in city shelters, the announcement brought relief.
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"Some of them have showed a lot of stress, a lot of anxiety due to seeing that, those 60 days as a countdown," said New Life Centers Director Of Community Care Eduardo Fuentes.
New Life Centers has helped shelter and resettle asylum seekers. Fuentes said extending shelter eviction deadlines will have a real impact.
"It gives them a little more time to be able to find an apartment, to be able to get connected with other resources," Fuentes said.
As for finding housing after migrants leaving shelters, the mayor said there are more people at the shelters helping new arrivals move on.
"Whether it's through Catholic Charities or New Life, there are far more people who are available to help people who are available to help families resettle as fast as possible," Johnson said.
In the meantime, the migrant mission is costing the city $1.5 million per day. The city has only allocated $150 million for the entire year. At this rate, the city will burn through that money in April.
"Look, I've always said that this is an evolving crisis. The ability of my administration to be nimble and flexible, I've demonstrated that," Johnson said.
Johnson has continued to plea for more federal help, but former President Donald Trump is urging House Republicans to not support a bipartisan immigration bill in the Senate.
Gov. JB Pritzker weighed in on the lack of federal action.
"I think it's a sad fact that the Republicans are walking away from the table when they've got the deal that they wanted it on the table. And the fact that they're walking away just tells you that this was all about politics from day one," Pritzker said.
The city has no plans to build more shelters and again called on the state to create shelters outside Chicago. Pritzker dismissed that idea.
"We certainly have encouraged other jurisdictions to step forward. We've created grant programs. Some have taken us up, Oak Park, for example," Pritzker said.
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