Hyde Park residents threatening lawsuit against city for planned permanent homeless shelter

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Some Hyde Park Residents are threatening a lawsuit against the city for making a building a permanent homeless shelter. Their alderman supports the move.

Once a vibrant Hyde Park lakefront hotel, the entire footprint of the prime property, located at 4900 S. DuSable Lake Shore Drive, will become a permanent homeless shelter in June. It will be big enough to house over 750 people.

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"Once you put them on the lakefront, do you really think they are going to leave?" resident Tom Jacks said.

Right now, roughly over 400 homeless families are housed there. Almost two years ago, the former Chicago Lakeshore Hotel was opened as a temporary migrant shelter.

"I've seen loitering, gathering of migrants selling things out of the car," resident Myra Johnson said.

While many nearby Hyde Park residents have complained about quality of life issues, they put up with it, knowing the shelter was temporary.

SEE MORE: Hyde Park residents divided over city's plan to turn former hotel into shelter for unhoused

But, not anymore, Mayor Brandon Johnson's administration plans to expand the shelter and make it permanent under its One System Initiative: combining the city's homeless and migrant populations.

"The part that is missing is the community discussion that allows the community say so to happen," 5th Ward Ald. Desmond Yancy said.

Yancy is concerned about the lack of community input. He said, because the Johnson administration claims the property does not need a zoning change, public hearings are not required.

"I've been speaking with representatives of the Johnson administration for several months now, and they seem hyper-focused on putting a shelter at this location," Yancy said.

Some residents say they will support the shelter if it can be cleaned up and managed properly.

"It could be a shelter, if they make sure people are living in humane conditions and not overcrowded," Renee Moore said.

Residents are in the process of raising money to hire a lawyer for a lawsuit against the city, but some feel litigation may become too expensive to keep a case going against the coffers of the city.