Chicago to close 3 migrant shelters by end of October, city says

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The City of Chicago announced planned closures of three migrant shelters on Tuesday.

The city said it currently has more than 5,000 unused beds in the new arrivals system and is re-evaluating the needs of migrants for the rest of this year.

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Those shelter closures are just a few weeks away.

The City of Chicago, the State of Illinois and Cook County said they have a strategic plan for the number of beds and funding needed for new migrants in Chicago for the rest of the year.

Right now, they are scaling back, in large part, because of steep decline in the number of new arrivals over the last several months.

"It only makes sense to start pulling back from some of the shelter obligations that former Mayor Lightfoot and Mayor Johnson have entangled us with. I think that one of those shelters, the Halsted shelter is long overdue for closure. That's where we saw the sepsis and so much of the dirtiness associated with many of the shelters," said 15th Ward Ald. Raymond Lopez.

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The city said it will close the shelter on South Halsted by Oct. 1, as well as the shelter on Ogden. As for the shelter on Lake Shore, it will close by Oct. 24.

"I think as our numbers continue to decrease, our financial obligation should decrease as a city, as it should our responsibility," Lopez said.

This comes one day after the announcement of Mayor Brandon Johnson's plan to tackle the ongoing budget crisis with a hiring freeze, including for police, fire and paramedics. Gov. JB Pritzker addressed the shelter closures at an event on Tuesday.

"It appears that the number of people crossing the border has been significantly diminished because of the policies of the Harris-Biden administration. And so, I feel like, you know, we've got to be prepared and have some capacity, but I don't think quite as much capacity as we needed before. So hopefully that reduces some expenditures by the city, county and state," Pritzker said.

The three shelters set to close currently contain more than 3,000 beds combined. The city also said all current shelter residents at these locations will be offered space at other shelters, where they can continue to receive the same services.