CHICAGO — The city has received an infusion of federal dollars to help thousands of incoming migrants after months of pleading for more U.S government support to address the issue.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is sending more than $10.5 million to Chicago for shelter and support services, according to a Monday post on the agency’s website.
The federal agency is also sending $19.4 million to the Illinois Department of Human Services to help in assisting the asylum seekers, officials said.
The federal funding comes as the city continues to struggle to find housing and basic services for the thousands of Central and South American migrants who have arrived in Chicago on buses and flights from border states like Texas. City officials have also repeatedly asked the federal government for additional help.
Before leaving office, former Mayor Lori Lightfoot wrote a letter urging federal and state officials to advocate for more federal funding. By that point, the city had spent all of the $5.5 million it previously received from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“This is national crisis that requires a national response,” Lightfoot wrote in her letter in April.
The city has only received about $10 million from the federal government to help house and provide resources to migrants, despite requesting much more, officials have said.
City officials previously asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency for between $38.9 million and $66.7 million, according to the Sun-Times’ Lynn Sweet.
Another $30 million has been granted from the state, including $20 million that was the subject of intense debate at a City Council meeting earlier this year.
In late May, alderpeople approved $51 million in city funding to address the humanitarian crisis after a contentious vote previously blocked by a trio of alderpeople. That money is intended for staffing, food, transportation and legal services at temporary shelters.
Since August, more than 10,500 men, women and children have come to Chicago. 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, officials said last week.
All eight city-run shelters are near or at capacity, officials have said, and migrants and volunteers have reported poor treatment and substandard conditions inside the facilities.
City officials have scrambled to repurpose other buildings like colleges and Park District properties into temporary shelters as more people arrive.
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