There's a full-blown war between Chicago's inept mayor Brandon Johnson and Democratic governor and presidential hopeful J.B. Pritzker over the issue of sheltering migrants.
Pritzker has been highly critical of Johnson's incompetent efforts to deal with the crisis, while Johnson continues to whine that the state isn't doing anything. Pritzker has shuffled funds around in the state's Health and Humana Services budget to come up with $160 million in funding for Chicago, but Johnson hasn't constructed any shelters in the city since December, sending some of the migrants to outlying suburbs. Those that will have them, at least.
“The city has not told the state where they would like us to put our resources to build new shelters,” Pritzker said during an unrelated event in Chicago on Monday. “So we can’t help if they don’t identify those locations.”
Johnson’s office said that Pritzker has the authority to “fund, stand up, and operate a shelter” in any city in Illinois, including Chicago.
“The city of Chicago has carried the entire weight of the new arrival mission, sheltering nearly every asylum-seeker sent to Illinois,” according to the statement.
Johnson refuses to take responsibility for his incompetence after the state's EPA shot down a proposal for a tent city in Chicago's Brighton Park neighborhood on the city's west side after tests discovered the site to be a toxic waste dump.
The city-run shelter system has been at capacity for months. Johnson earlier this month confirmed that there has been a pause in standing up additional shelters since mid-December.
Asked whether the state would be providing additional funding to address the state’s migration crisis this year, Pritzker said he has encouraged state legislators to ensure they can fulfill the $160 million in additional funding the state has committed to address the issue.
“If you think this problem is going to end when the temperature warms up, it’s not,” he said. “We still need shelter for people.”
To make matters worse (if that's possible), the city of Chicago has begun issuing eviction notices to migrants in city shelters, telling thousands of people they've got to leave. But there's been little or no guidance from the city on where they should go next.
Johnson has set Feb. 1 as a deadline to begin the eviction of people who have stayed 60 days in a city-run shelter. The decision has set off a literal panic as migrants fear that they'll be tossed out into the cold.
Migrants and volunteers told Block Club that the changing deadline for leaving shelters has created “panic,” with communication from the city limited to single-page eviction notices in Spanish, often passed out just a day or two before shelter stays are said to be up.
Some migrants still have outdated eviction notices penned for Jan. 22, when the deadline was first extended, said volunteer Erika Villegas, who has been receiving frantic messages from families with pictures of the notices.
“I don’t understand the purpose of just creating another crisis, by not giving any direction to the most vulnerable people in the city,” Villegas said. “It’s unfair we’re not providing the tools for people to become independent.”
How incompetent is the Johnson administration? With eight days to go before the deadline, it still hasn't finalized plans for where the migrants should go.
“We are currently finalizing changes to the 60-day policy and will have more information in the coming weeks,” mayoral spokesperson Ronnie Reese said in an email to Block Club of Chicago.
Part of the plan is to allow migrants kicked out of their shelters to reapply for a bed at the city's downtown "landing zone."
Andre Gordillo, a director with New Life Centers, a local nonprofit tapped to work at the landing zone, says the staff is expecting an influx of people.
“We’re preparing for hundreds, but hopefully that’s not the case,” Gordillo said. “It’s tough to find housing just for regular Chicagoans in the wintertime, let alone someone who’s not familiar with the landscape of renting in Chicago.”
“This is the first time I’ve felt cold like this. It’s so forceful,” said a migrant staying at the Elston Avenue shelter, who asked not to be named for fear it could impact her chance at receiving shelter again. “The shelter gave us the letters, but didn’t explain what is going to happen next, where we should go, or if there is another place we can go.”
For Democratic politicians playing hot potato with the migrant issue, war is hell.
