OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
4:53 PM – Wednesday, October 23, 2024
By the end of the year, authorities will start closing Chicago’s migrant shelters, which have been overrun and at capacity from the flocks of illegal aliens who have traveled to secure their free shelter, food, and other U.S. taxpayer-funded benefits.
The modifications coincide with plans by county, city, and state officials to combine the city’s traditional homeless shelters and migrant shelters into a new “unified” shelter system that would be implemented on January 1st, 2025.
The new consolidated shelter system, known as the “One System Initiative,” was unveiled by Democrat Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson on Monday. Its goal is to “simplify the city’s provision of shelter and other services” to both long-term homeless Chicagoans and illegal aliens.
This week marks the start of the transition to the new system. The mayor’s administration said Tuesday that the only migrants who will be allowed to be placed in one of the city’s 13 migrant shelters must have entered the United States in the last 30 days or less.
However, the 60-day eviction policy at migrant shelters will likewise be terminated under the new system. When the new unified system goes into force on January 1st, asylum seekers who are still in shelters will be permitted to remain there and reap its “free” resources.
“This will help to ensure that we have a single and equitable shelter system for anyone – an equitable shelter system for anyone experiencing homelessness. It will also eliminate shelter stay limits, and over time will provide more options for unhoused residents and families with children,” Johnson said. “The goal of a one-shelter system … it’s to eliminate a segregated system.”
The authorized “landing zone” for migrants will only be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on November 1st, instead of remaining open overnight. By the end of 2024, the landing zone will close, and migrants and those looking for a shelter bed will have to use the city’s 311 system.
Still, there may not be enough beds in the city’s new, consolidated shelter system to accommodate all of the migrants who are now residing there.
The One System Initiative aims to provide 6,800 beds for homeless individuals in Chicago, regardless of their immigration status. The homeless shelter system run by the city’s Department of Family & Support Services now has 3,000 beds. The state will fund an additional 2,100 beds that the city expects to add.
“Could this lead to people on the street? Look, I’ll be remiss if I did not acknowledge the financial straits that we are experiencing right now, and the impact that that’s going to have on this mission,” Johnson added.
Johnson’s expenditure deficit for the upcoming year is $982 million, which is almost twice as much as it was during his first year in office.
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