Mayor Johnson begins process of kicking migrants out of city shelters; first ejections coming in January

The countdown has begun for all migrants entering city shelters to find housing within 60 days or be forced to leave under a new rule issued by Mayor Brandon Johnson.

Migrants who entered shelters Friday will have to be out by mid-January, according to the mayor’s office. However, exceptions will be made for “medical crises or extreme cold weather.”

The more than 12,000 migrants already in city shelters will have a little more time before they are ejected. However, all of them — with some exceptions — will have to leave by early April, under the rule.

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Migrants forced to exit shelters then will have to circle back to a new city intake center to apply to get back into the temporary housing.

City officials revealed the details of the shelter-stay rule in an announcement Friday, saying the aim was to accelerate “resettlement efforts.”

“We are treating our new neighbors with compassion because it is the humane thing to do and because, with support, they can become productive members of our communities, contributing to our economy, our culture and our society,” Johnson said in a statement.

Nearly 25,000 migrants have been bused or flown to Chicago, mostly from Texas, since August 2022.

Sheltering, feeding and resettling them has been a strain on city resources.

Several thousand migrants found housing through state or other programs or on their own. Thousands more remain in shelters, and 2,200 are camped out at police stations and O’Hare Airport.

For those who were sheltered earlier this year or in 2022, there will be a staggered schedule for departures under Johnson’s new rule.

A group of about 50 migrants who entered city shelters in 2022 will have to leave in mid-January. Another 3,000 who entered shelters January through July of this year, will have to leave by early February.

Almost 9,000 people who entered between August and Thursday, will depart by the start of April.

City officials say they are hoping a state rental assistance program and federally-sponsored work permit program will reach those remaining people by that time, helping to avoid the need for them to be in a shelter.

The rental assistance program will no longer be offered for anyone entering the shelters, officials announced this week.

An effort to help migrants get work permits has been slow. Without a work authorization, many in shelters wonder what will happen when they reach the end of their 60 days.

“If the government wants us to be able to rent our own space, we need to be able to work,” said José Valentín, a Venezuelan migrant, staying at a recently opened West Loop shelter with his partner and their 19-month-old son.

At the shelter, which opened in October and is housing more than 1,000 people, he said there were no social services of any kind, from help with housing or with their immigration cases.

“We’re waiting for that help, but it hasn’t come yet,” said the 22-year-old Valentín.

Andrew Mack of Bridgeport briefly housed a migrant family that now stays at the Inn of Chicago.

The family of five registered for rental assistance program, Mack said. But, they haven’t been able to find an apartment for months.

“It’s a lot of work to hunt for an apartment,” Mack said. “You have to know the system, how it all works, leases, things like that.”

The 39-year-old also fixes up free bikes for migrants and has heard from many also asking about apartments.

“I understand Johnson’s trying to motivate people, if people aren’t trying to find housing,” he said, “but people are trying.”

Michael Loria is a staff reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times via Report for America, a not-for-profit journalism program that aims to bolster the paper’s coverage of communities on the South Side and West Side.