City begins removal of Gompers Park tent encampment on Northwest Side

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Encampment homes were seen being cleared out of a park on Chicago's Far Northwest Side on Friday.

It was the beginning of a clearing of the camp to allow restorations at Gompers Park, but many said they were unprepared to lose their homes.

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Cranes were seen at the park Friday morning, taking the tent homes of unhoused people. Several of the people who lived there told ABC7 they have nowhere to go. Meanwhile, the city said it's doing what is best for the community.

Cellphone videos taken by community members showed dozens of police officers standing in front of cranes that were taking homes, mattresses and other personal belongings.

One woman, who didn't want to go on camera, said she's lived at Gompers Park for 15 years. Now, she and other unhoused people find themselves having to start from scratch.

Community members, who wanted their identities hidden, came out to support them.

"I'm standing where someone's home used to be, and I saw it stripped from the ground with a massive crane enthroned to the garbage," one community member said. "How is that justifiable?"

Several signs were seen throughout the park pleading to "stop the sweep." Some claim the unhoused did not get enough time to leave on their own. They said the people here were given notice just few days ago.

"There were no delegated agencies from the city," one community member said. "Brutal way of displacing people in the middle of one of the coldest weeks of the year."

Just last week, the city of Chicago told ABC7 the clearing of the encampment, after concerns of public safety, would be delayed to next month. However, Alderman Samantha Nugent said Friday only the yurts were taken down.

READ MORE | Removal of Gompers Park encampment delayed to next month, public safety concerns persist

"They're determined to be really unsafe and highly combustible," Ald. Nugent said. "Since January of last year, the Chicago Fire Department has been called out to Gompers Park 36 times."

Nugent said those who are unhoused have been offered housing for the past year.

"Conditions are so dire there," Nugent said. "We really need to get these folks housing that are living there in the encampment, and then we need to restore this park."

In a statement to ABC7 from the Restore Gompers Park Coalition, a spokesperson said they have "been disheartened by the confusion and chaos at the park this week... and the accelerated moving event [has] been proven to be successful in moving people from the street into housing."

The statement said the coalition has a date of March 5 set for the clearing of the rest of the encampment.

However, activists said several unhoused people are being put in further hardship.

"The city of Chicago... that's using its resources to brutalize, terrorize and evict people, you have to step up," a community member said. "You can't be a bystander."

Chicago police said a man was arrested after allegedly assaulting police officers at Gompers Park on Friday, and he could be charged soon.