WOODLAWN — A man staying at a city-run migrant shelter on the South Side died Friday morning, authorities said.
Police said officers arrived to the 6400 block of South University Avenue around 6:12 a.m. and found a 27-year-old man unresponsive.
The man was an asylum-seeker staying at the shelter in the old Wadsworth Elementary School, 6420 S. University Ave., and had been “foaming at the mouth,” according to reporting from the Chicago Sun-Times. Police would not confirm the location was Wadsworth Elementary or if the man was a migrant.
Police said he was pronounced dead at the scene. Area One detectives are conducting a death investigation, which is done when the cause and manner of a death aren’t immediately known, they said.
The Wadsworth shelter has been a point of contention in the Woodlawn community, with neighbors criticizing the city’s decision to open it without their input. Shelters in other neighborhoods, such as South Shore, Dunning and West Lawn, have gotten similar pushback.
The city has had to open shelters as Chicago faces a “humanitarian crisis,” with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and other Republican governors representing border states sending Central and South American migrants to Chicago and pushing the city’s shelter system to its limit.
Hundreds of migrants have been sleeping at police stations in recent weeks while the city has been trying to find large facilities to turn into shelters and respite centers.
Since August, 10,502 men, women and children have come to Chicago, officials have said. About 4,500 people are staying in the city’s temporary shelters, and more than 600 are waiting in police stations for shelter space to become available.