Next month, asylum-seekers who have been in Chicago shelters for 60 days will face eviction under the latest deadline imposed by Mayor Brandon Johnson.
Hundreds are expected to be booted and will have to return to the West Loop landing zone to reapply for shelter placement. Few had secured other housing as of last week.
To minimize confusion and homelessness, we urge Johnson and his staff to communicate clearly with migrants about restarting the sheltering process, or offer bus or plane tickets to relocate asylum-seekers who want to be with families or friends elsewhere.
But since so few have found housing — and can’t remain on buses — the city has to make sure the conditions in shelters are safe and clean. A WTTW-Channel 11 report Tuesday raised plenty of questions on that front.
The mayor and his administration received complaints about deteriorating conditions at a shelter in Pilsen in late October, WTTW reported. Seven weeks later, on Dec. 17, 5-year-old Jean Carlos Martinez Rivero died after a medical emergency at the shelter.
Martinez Rivero’s cause of death has not been determined. Was it tied to shelter conditions? We don’t know.
But there’s no denying the brutal environment inside the shelter, a former warehouse, according to emails obtained Wednesday by the Editorial Board.
The emails among a group of various city officials make clear the dire conditions at the facility within weeks of its opening in early October, as it quickly grew more crowded. On Oct. 5, 2023, 400 asylum-seekers were at the shelter. By Oct. 29, the number had reached 1,300. In mid-December, more than 2,000 were housed there.
The city, it appears, simply could not keep up with shelter improvements while taking in hundreds of new arrivals. Even so, City Hall has to be held accountable. We know there are supposed to be protocols for monitoring shelters. Given that, problems in Pilsen should have been flagged much sooner. The migrant crisis didn’t start yesterday. A swift, effective response has to be the norm.
‘Insufficient’ bathrooms, roaches, sewage, fights
When 11th Ward Ald. Nicole Lee raised questions about the conditions, a city official replied quickly, with steps and suggestions to address the issues. The long list of problems clearly merited a comprehensive response and included “insufficient” bathrooms; exposed pipes with raw sewage; a cockroach infestation; a possible outbreak of illness with many people sick; not enough food and water; and allegations that staff at the shelter were treating migrants poorly.
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There were long lines for the bathrooms, according to one email, and reports by neighbors of people defecating in an alley. At one point, a bathroom door was left open and a snake made it inside.
Tensions rose, and fights were breaking out.
In late October, there were 33 toilets inside the shelter and 20 portable toilets outside — for 1,300 people. There were 11 shower stalls for females and 11 for males. By December, the shelter population rose to more than 2,000. It’s unclear how many more bathrooms and showers were installed — if any — by then.
The mayor’s office said Wednesday in a statement that it has taken “concrete action to address any and all concerns related to conditions at City-run shelters as they have arisen.”
The city also said that in Pilsen the Department of Public Health “deployed infectious prevention specialists to support shelter operators with managing reporting, investigation, and isolation of communicable diseases.” The health department also worked with agencies and clinical partners to provide vaccinations for varicella, flu and COVID-19.
Emails show migrants generally are encouraged to use QR codes to report poor shelter conditions and other grievances. But come on. Can the city really expect migrants new to this country and perhaps with limited or no English, to scan QR codes and file complaints? Those who are capable of doing so might very well decide not to, for fear it could impact their ability to find shelter elsewhere.
The city is in a tough, no-win situation as it struggles to shelter thousands of asylum- seekers. But officials can’t wait for reports of trouble. Spot inspections and proactive improvements are a must — to prevent chaos, sickness or worse.
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