Churches to house hundreds of Chicago migrants as busloads arrive in city

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Chicago has received over 22,000 migrants since last year.

In less than an hour on Tuesday morning, two buses filled with migrants arrived in Chicago from Texas, carrying just some of the more than 300 people expected that day.

"Today for the first time, they're not going to police districts. They're going straight to a shelter," said Eddie Fuentes with New Life Centers Of Chicagoland.

Where they go, Fuentes said, depends on real-time availability, with priority given to families with young children.

"We're definitely doing everything possible to keep them out of the districts and into shelters. We do provide them blankets and everything to prepare them if they do go to a district," Fuentes said.

As if arriving home from any ordinary trip, Kleimar stepped out of a shuttle van on Tuesday night, followed a few minutes later by a handful of couples and a few asylum-seeking single adults fresh from the floor of a police station.

This is the kindest, and physically warmest welcome they've been greeted with yet in Chicago. That's been the mission of Life Impacters Foundation for more than a year.

"How long can you do work without receiving any funding?" said Yolanda Pena, co-founder of the Life Impacters Foundation.

Now, with a $350,000 boost from private donors, the city is helping to fund a fully-functioning shelter at Grace and Peace Church, and more than a dozen others just like it.

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In the basement of Grace and Peace Church is a 20,000 square foot warehouse filled with all the basic things that the migrants need when they arrive in Chicago.

From food supplies, to warm boots to diapers for the families with young children, Pastor John Zayas says it's about meeting needs and giving rest to weary souls.

"This is all about stabilization, stabilizing the fact that they're not going to leave without food, housing. Once we stabilize the food and the housing piece, then we begin to enter into them and give them vision," Zayas said.

It's part of a new city initiative that will officially launch on Wednesday.

The Southwest Side Dunamis Life Church is also one of 17 churches that are part of the so-called Unity Initiative, an effort to help provide housing and services to new arrivals at no cost to the taxpayer as the city works to get them all out of police stations by Dec. 1, or shortly thereafter.

"The Unity Initiative will prioritize getting pregnant women, children and all of those sleeping outside of police stations or on the floors into temporary housing as quickly as possible through churches all over the city of Chicago," Mayor Brandon Johnson said. "There, they will have access to case management and assistance finding permanent housing through the work of our philanthropic partners."

At The Dunamis Life Church, cots arrived this afternoon as the pastor worked alongside those helping to get the rooms ready to welcome 20 migrants, all men, starting Wednesday.

"Well, our plan is, within 60 days, to help them find housing to help them find jobs. We also are providing mental health services through our mental health clinic that we have," said Pastor Robert Belfort.

All told, the churches will be able to house 340 migrants, far short of the more than 1,000 still living at police stations or O'Hare Airport. But, it is a complementary effort as the city works to move the new arrivals into shelters.

When Euvelis Rengel arrived in Chicago more than a year ago from Venezuela, she opened a cafe inside Grace and Peace Church. She talked about her journey through an interpreter.

"The pastor gave us an opportunity to be able to grow here little by little," Rengel said.

And, she said, she hopes to buy a home next year.

The city-church initiative is being funded by private donations that so far have totaled $350,000.

"Our goal is to house, our goal is to give hope, our goal is to make sure that those who are coming feel welcomed and embraced," Zayas said.

Zayas said the goal is to raise $1 million by the end of December to fund this initiative. And, while the goal is to move migrants out of the churches after 60 days, he said this effort will continue as long as there's a need.

"We actually want to start tomorrow. We want to send the buses and start picking up folks," Zayas said. "The time is now, and so our goal is to send the bus and we are going to start picking up folks and establishing them in the churches that are behind you. All these pastors have committed to start the process."

The churches, it is hoped, will provide a stopgap until work is finalized on a winterized base camp in Brighton Park, which will be able to house up to 2,000 people.

On Tuesday, crews began measuring and placing bases where the tents will be installed. That is happening even as Johnson has continued to battle accusations that his administration has been less than transparent regarding the camp itself and contamination of the land upon which it is to be placed.

Construction on that base camp could start as early as Wednesday.