Evictions from Chicago migrant shelters to begin Sunday

However, the 35 new arrivals that will leave three city shelters represent a much lower number of evictions that will take place after Johnson’s office announced modifications to its current 60-day shelter exit program on Friday. Johnson’s administration previously announced that up to 5,600 migrants could face eviction in the coming weeks and months. But due to modifications to the mayor’s 60-day plan, that number has been trimmed to around 3,800 as of Friday.

In total, about 4,500 migrants who were scheduled for eviction between mid-March and the end of May will be eligible for extensions.

The newly announced exemptions allow migrants who are parents of Chicago Public Schools students a reprieve, along with others who meet other requirements, including being pregnant, ill or having a mental health issue or quarantine requirement to remain in the shelters where they have been staying since being bused to Chicago by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

However, city officials said Friday that Abbott’s continued busing migrants to cities like Chicago without notice has put many of the aspects of managing the migrant crisis out of city’s control.

Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, who represents the area of the city where the measles outbreak was found in the shelter, called the continued busing of migrants from Texas “shameful.” Like Johnson, he also blamed the federal government for its part in the crisis, saying lawmakers have failed to do their job.

“I’m glad we have a mayor who is doing everything he can in a really difficult situation,” Sigcho-Lopez told NewsNation Now after Friday’s announcement.

He added: “We’re trying to do everything we can. The federal government has yet to spend a penny in our city, it’s time to have common sense policies.”

Friday’s announcement comes as a measles outbreak in the city’s largest migrant shelter forced the Johnson administration to reconsider its position on when migrants would face eviction. The 1,800 migrants who have been at the affected Pilsen shelter will be among those who will be exempt from eviction, city leaders said.

However, as part of the modifications to Johnson’s 60-day shelter policy, all migrants living in city-run shelters will be required to be vaccinated for the measles and other viruses, city health officials said on Friday.

As of Friday, 11,200 migrants are living in city and state-run shelters and migrants have remained in shelters for an average of 94 days.

Cristina Pacione-Zayas, Johnson’s deputy chief of staff, said Friday that those who will be evicted Sunday will be notified by case managers within the shelter system Friday. More than 244 other migrants face eviction by the end of March before another 1,782 will be forced to leave by the end of April, city officials said.

A total of 2,026 migrants will face eviction by the end of April, city officials announce. All of those facing evictions do not qualify for any of the exemptions announced under the modified version of Johnson’s exit plan. Johnson and city officials said that those who leave city shelters can return to Chicago’s landing zone, where they can re-apply for placement in shelters.

Department of Family and Support Services Commissioner Brandie Knazze said on Friday that in informing shelter residents that they need to leave, case workers will use “education and grace” instead of force. Residents will be allowed 48 hours to keep their belongings at the shelter if needed and will be afforded flexibility in when they are asked to leave.

The city does not plan to use Chicago Police officers in the eviction process,

“The goal is not necessarily to use law enforcement as a first line of defense, but really supporting the case managers to be able to talk to individuals and reason with them and support them in going back to the landing zone and applying for shelter,” Knazze said Friday.

Before Friday’s announcement, thousands of migrants and asylum seekers living in 23 city-run shelters in Chicago were in limbo Johnson was still deliberating whether to stick with his current 60-day policy that
would force some migrants out of temporary housing on Saturday.

However, Pacione-Zayas said that no migrants were ever scheduled to leave Saturday. She said evaluating the policy has remained a fluid operation, made more uncertain by the outbreak of the 10 measles cases within the migrant shelter in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood.

Johnson said Wednesday that he planned to move ahead with keeping the deadline in place after twice delaying it due to cold temperatures earlier this year. However, after the Chicago Department of Public Health announced two more confirmed measles cases at the city’s largest shelter Thursday, a Chicago Alderman leading a coalition of local leaders told NewsNation that Johnson was still deliberating the policy.

The mayor referred to the crisis as a “jacked-up situation” earlier this week and criticized the government for not providing more assistance.

Ald. Andre Vasquez sent a letter to Johnson on Tuesday, imploring the mayor to hold off on imposing the deadline. The letter said that moving ahead with the deadline would just exasperate the problem and could add to Chicago’s homeless population.

On Wednesday, Johnson called the situation “jacked up” and said that city-run shelters were always meant to be emergency temporary housing. He said that the expected 5,600 migrants who face eviction could always go back to the city’s landing zone and re-apply for placement in shelters.

Johnson said he is “very sympathetic” to concerns but says he has not received the level of assistance from the federal government to make managing the migrant crisis feasible.

Vasquez, who led a coalition of 22 alderpersons to try to get the mayor to reconsider imposing the 60-day deadline, said that migrants aren’t the only people facing unanswered questions.

But city staff said Friday that the process will remain fluid as long as Abbott continues to send more migrants from the southern border. New arrivals have slowed considerably since December, when the city’s shelter population stood at nearly 15,000 migrants.

The mayor has faced criticism over his handling of the crisis, including from some aldermen who say that precious city resources that had been allocated for neighborhood initiatives have instead gone to dealing with housing and serving new arrivals.

Yet, for city leaders who again pushed for more federal financial help on Friday, the crisis remains a matter of treading through previously uncharted waters.

“This has never been done before. You’re literally building the plane while flying,” Pacione-Zayas said. “There’s no blueprint in any other city that we can look to. We did talk to our colleagues, and they didn’t have the playbook.”