What will Chicago migrant shelter evictions look like?

Javier, a Venezuela native, feels like he’s facing the edge of a cliff.

He is one of many migrants in city shelters and, as far as he can tell, he, his partner and their three kids have just two more nights at the Pilsen shelter before being evicted under Mayor Brandon Johnson’s plan to enforce shelter stay limits.

The 32-year-old isn’t absolutely certain because the eviction plan has been delayed before, but they’ve been at the shelter since late November, over 100 days.

What’s next? “La calle,” he said, gesturing to Halsted Street, running alongside the shelter where 1,800 people are currently staying. What are they doing to prepare? “Packing our bags,” he said.

A former auto factory worker, he had hoped to find similar work here. But “without a work permit, without a [Social Security number],” he said, raising his hands as if to say it’s futile.

Many are in the same position, without a work permit, with no legal way to earn a reliable income to save money for an apartment. Not to mention no credit score, rental history and, for many, without even a friend or relative’s place to crash.

The Johnson administration has defended the policy as a way of incentivizing migrants to quickly find housing.

Johnson had previously delayed the plan twice but confirmed Wednesday that limited shelter evictions will begin this weekend, despite a measles outbreak and over the protests of alderpersons and activists.

He said there would be exemptions from the evictions, potentially for those planning to move soon or for extenuating health circumstances.

City officials haven’t responded to questions about how the evictions will work, who will enforce them and whether those exiting the city’s 23 shelters — ranging from Rogers Park to West Lawn — will be offered transportation to the city’s designated “landing zone,” where they can reapply for shelter beds.

Chicago Public Schools officials haven’t responded to questions about whether any representative would be on-site at the 800 S. Desplaines St. location to help migrant families reapplying for shelter beds find a new school, closer to their new address, or secure transportation for them.

Of the 11,200 migrants in shelters, close to 4,000 are children, though not all are school age or have begun attending.

Volunteer workers assisting migrants bemoan the lack of answers.

“We don’t know if people will be turned right out onto the sidewalk or if they’ll be taken to the landing zone, which is pretty significant,” said Lydia Wong, a longtime volunteer with migrants around the city.

“We’re all a little bit on edge.”

“If they’ll just kick us out on the street, take us somewhere else — I don’t know what,” said Carmen Briseño, a mother of five who moved to the shelter in Pilsen where a 5-year-old died at around the same time. “What’s certain is that it’ll be a lot of people.”

The native of Caracas, Venezuela, and her family aren’t due to exit until later in March, she said. Earlier in the week, someone from the shelter staff was warning them about the upcoming evictions.

“How are you going to prepare?” she recalled the staffer saying. “We have no idea,” was her response.

“We stay here because it’s a roof over our heads, but not because we want to,” the 32-year-old said. “It’s just because we don’t have work papers. If we did, then we’d get some money and we’d go.”

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.