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* UPDATED x1 * Population of asylum-seekers at police stations continues dramatic decline

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* Block Club Chicago…

Fewer than 500 migrants were still in police stations as of Monday, officials said. That’s down from a high of about 3,300 Oct. 16.

That’s also down from the 877 the city reported Friday. Progress is being made.

More from the story…

A little over 13,400 people are staying in the city’s 26 shelters as of Tuesday. That’s nearly double the 6,600 in shelters Aug. 31.

More…

If people show up at a closed police station seeking emergency shelter, they’ll be directed to a district station still accepting people, May said. Once all the stations are cleared, meals and service requests for temporary shelter placement won’t be provided, she said.

The city said people will need to make shelter requests at the new “landing zone” — the area near Downtown where most buses carrying migrants drop them off. The same goes for migrants who reach the end of their 60-day shelter limit, a rule Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration rolled out last month. […]

[Emily Wheeling, a project manager for the Faith Community Initiative] tried asking the city to create some kind of fact sheet so migrants know exactly what they’re getting when they go into a city shelter, but she was told not to assure people of anything since there’s inconsistency around what each shelter offers, she said.

There’s some complaining in the story about the disruptions caused by moving people out of police stations, but it simply has to be done. And it’s not like their lives were stable at the stations, or during their journeys here.

* This is an idea that I’ve pushed here before. Give them something to do…

Fresh off the trucks, pallets packed full of fresh and frozen food piled up outside a full-service Northwest Side shelter.

But, not for long. Newly-arrived migrants made quick work, taking freezers and shelves from empty to fully-stocked.

“They’re boots on the ground. They just want to do something,” said Yolanda Peña, co-founder of the Life Impacters Foundation. “There’s an assembly line. They know what to do. They take leadership.”

Peña’s organization led the charge to open the pantry in the Hermosa facility just last month. Two floors up from the pantry, 50 migrants, families and couples, have made themselves a temporary home.

The Greater Chicago Food Depository said right now, one in five people in the Chicago area struggle just to put food on the table. But here, asylum-seekers help fill the grocery carts of people who have now become their neighbors.

It’s good for the community and it’s good for them, in many ways.

*** UPDATE *** Background is here if you need it. From Gov. Pritzker’s press conference today…

Q: Is the state willing to keep filling in the gaps for feeding the migrants if the city of Chicago can’t come up with a comprehensive plan on their own?

Pritzker: Well, the city should be able to come up with a comprehensive plan on its own. And you know, the state has stepped in for the last two and a half months. And thank goodness for the Greater Chicago Food Depository, an independent nonprofit organization that has come up with $2 million of philanthropic support for at least half of the month of December, when the city wasn’t able to cover the month of December. And the state is putting up the other two million. So I believe that over this four weeks, that’s time enough for the city to be able to complete its procurement process which started a few months ago to make sure that it’s in place beginning January 1st.

* From Isabel…

Governing | How One Chicagoan Helps Migrant Kids With Disabilities:

* Sun-Times | Suit to stop Brighton Park migrant tent site dismissed, for now: However, Judge David Atkins ordered the city to alert the plaintiffs — a group of Southwest Side residents — if construction resumes and said the motion could be reintroduced then. “That’s the appropriate remedy here since there is no construction going on at this time,” said the circuit court judge.

* Block Club | Brighton Park Tent Encampment Construction On Hold For At Least A Week, City Lawyer Says: Atkins also denied the city’s effort to dismiss the lawsuit Monday. Attorneys have until the early next week to file a formal motion to dismiss, but Atkins said it’s unlikely he would rule on that until January because the court won’t be in session much during the holiday schedule.

* Center Square | Pritzker says feds must ditch work fees for migrants: Gov. J.B. Pritzker said on Monday that he is working to remove the costs. “Every time I see White House personnel or the President, I have raised this issue and others related to the asylum seekers coming to Chicago,” Pritzker said. “This waiver of those fees is very, very important.”

* Tribune | State drafted, but never sent to Texas, flyer aimed at discouraging migrants from coming to Chicago: The aborted flyer, drafts of which the Tribune obtained through an open-records request, also highlights the simmering tensions between Democratic-run Illinois and Chicago and President Joe Biden’s White House over the migrant crisis, with state officials saying they were encouraged to create the document by the federal government.

* NBC Chicago | New migrant shelter in Portage Park to house up to 350 people: The new location, part of an initiative from faith groups to help provide housing for migrants as the winter season draws near, was selected after negations between the City of Chicago and the Archdiocese of Chicago, the release said. According to Cruz, the shelter plans to host migrants as early as mid-January of 2024. The Department of Family and Support Services staff are expected to manage the shelter’s operations while accommodating between 300-350 people, the release said.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Dec 5, 23 @ 10:53 am

Comments

Lot’s of good news.
Proud of our city leaders and citizens.
Good day to be a Chicagoan.

Comment by Back to the Future Tuesday, Dec 5, 23 @ 11:03 am
Glad to see the police station population is decreasing–migrants need to be indoors NOT at police stations.
Curious about the financials since there has been a sharp increase in the number of brick and mortar shelters and locations…couldn’t find the previous chart with the data on number in shelters and locations.

I wonder if the city has accounted for the increase in costs all the way around with the move from police stations to brick & mortar (mutual aid groups had been providing millions of dollars in services while at police station)…me thinks not, which is why the State had to step in to feed migrants for the last 2 weeks of December and there is a no response on food in January.

Comment by LastModDemStanding Tuesday, Dec 5, 23 @ 11:12 am
Pritzker is being so polite about the city’s failures whenever he’s asked about them (especially compared to his exhasperation when discussing his relationship with Lori). It makes the pettiness from the Mayor’s team much more apparent.

Comment by NIU Grad Tuesday, Dec 5, 23 @ 11:32 am
Pritzker swooped in to save Mayor Johnson once again. This should be a drinking game: a shot of Malort for every Pritzker save.

Comment by pragmatist Tuesday, Dec 5, 23 @ 11:40 am
- pragmatist - Tuesday, Dec 5, 23 @ 11:40 am:
Pritzker swooped in to save Mayor Johnson once again. This should be a drinking game: a shot of Malort for every Pritzker save.

Mayor Johnson should be made to down all those shots. Might actually help inspire him.

Comment by Dance Band on the Titanic Tuesday, Dec 5, 23 @ 11:47 am
In regards to the update, JB you are wrong. This mayor is not capable and does not have competent support.

Comment by Lurker Tuesday, Dec 5, 23 @ 12:00 pm
=== Pritzker swooped in to save Mayor Johnson once again. ===

I guess that’s one take.

Another take is that it was obvious to everyone in Week One that this human rights crisis would require state intervention and leadership, but the Pritzker administration sat on their hands until the past possible minute to try to avoid wearing the jacket for this one.

My favorite talking point was “with winter approaching”, as if we didnt know in August when winter arrives in Chicago.

That’s not to say that the Johnson administration has not made plenty of mistakes, but any attempt to paint Pritzker as the hero in this is absurd. We finally had the tsunami moment that McQueary was hoping for, and all of the politicians look like 50 shades of clueless. The only real heros I see right now are the community organizations and volunteers who are providing the boots on the ground to address this human rights crisis.

By the way, dont get comfy, as soon as Illinois thinks it has come up with all the answers, Texas will send another deluge of buses, probably just in time for the convention.

Comment by Ronald Bartel Tuesday, Dec 5, 23 @ 12:06 pm
Despite the tent camp boondoggle, the city has quietly done a respectable job standing up brick-and-mortar shelters. It’s not enough, but it’s not nothing.

Comment by Mark D Tuesday, Dec 5, 23 @ 12:29 pm
That update is something else.

“So I believe that over this four weeks, that’s time enough for the city to be able to complete its procurement process which started a few months ago to make sure that it’s in place beginning January 1st.”

You would think.

Comment by New Day Tuesday, Dec 5, 23 @ 12:33 pm
– Ronald Bartel - Tuesday, Dec 5, 23 @ 12:06 pm:

…Another take is that it was obvious to everyone in Week One that this human rights crisis would require state intervention and leadership, but the Pritzker administration sat on their hands until the past possible minute to try to avoid wearing the jacket for this one. –

EXACTLY what Ronald said. Not sure where the “Pritzker’s admin has been so competent during this” narrative is coming from. You could argue Pritzker owns this every bit as much as Johnson does.

Comment by Patti Tuesday, Dec 5, 23 @ 1:18 pm
JB doesn’t own this. The Mayor received people in his city and told everyone they could handle it. Then his floor leader started mocking JB and State leaders calling it their responsibility. When you want to attract flies you use honey, not vinegar.
Johnson still trying to defflect to the State as the issue and not his own people shows his lack of introspection.
CTU/DSA/UWF cannot govern beyond their little pieces of the pie.

Comment by Frida's boss Tuesday, Dec 5, 23 @ 2:13 pm
The Chamber of Commerce “cannot govern beyond their little pieces of the pie” either.

Comment by Jerry Tuesday, Dec 5, 23 @ 2:41 pm
The city needs to announce publicly it does not have the capacity to accept anymore asylum seekers until it can manage the current problem. Instead the city tried to hide the fact it sent buses to Cicero a few weeks ago.

Comment by Red Light Tuesday, Dec 5, 23 @ 7:52 pm