LITTLE VILLAGE — A temporary shelter housing up to 220 migrants in Little Village is expected to open this month, as state leaders also create an “intake center” at the city’s landing zone near Downtown where migrants are directed when they arrive in Chicago, officials said Wednesday.
Both initiatives will be funded through a $160 million spending plan announced in November by Gov. JB Pritzker to support Chicago’s efforts to shelter and resettle thousands of migrants who continue to arrive here, many of them via bus or plane chartered by the state of Texas.
The Little Village shelter is the first state-funded shelter in the city of Chicago, officials previously told neighbors at a community meeting in December. It’s opening in a former CVS store at 2634 S. Pulaski Road, and will house families with children. The shelter will only be open for six months, officials said.
GardaWorld, the controversial company which has contracts with both the state and city, will staff the Little Village shelter, representatives of the city’s Department of Family and Support Services said last month. They’ll be in charge of things like site construction, providing food, maintaining bathrooms and showers and other basic necessities.
What To Know About GardaWorld, The Controversial Security Company Tapped To Build Migrant Tent Camps
While that shelter is being constructed, the Little Village-based New Life Centers has been tapped by the state to staff a temporary shelter at a Chicago hotel to house families who arrived during an “uptick” over the holidays, according to a statement from the Illinois Department of Human Services.
More than 60 buses of migrants were sent to Chicago and other Illinois cities from Texas between Dec. 20-27, the state said.
The people staying at the hotel will transition to the Little Village shelter once it is ready, department officials said. New Life Centers will also have staff there to connect migrants with resources like housing or employment assistance, the group’s executive director Matt DeMateo previously said.
The move to launch a state-funded shelter in Little Village comes after the city’s plan to open a base camp for 2,000 migrants in Brighton Park was squashed by the state following environmental concerns at the site. The “winterized” tent camps were proposed by Mayor Brandon Johnson as a way to quickly get thousands of migrants out of police station lobbies.
Johnson’s administration began phasing out the use of police districts as temporary housing this fall. The city has opened shelters in leased buildings and partnered with more than a dozen churches to temporarily house people.
Intake Center Opening At Bus Landing Zone
Located at the corner of Desplaines and Polk streets, the landing zone is the city’s designated drop-off point for buses bringing migrants to Chicago — although that policy has been disregarded repeatedly by bus operators in recent weeks and months.
In November, state officials said they would spend $30 million on an intake center at the site to welcome new arrivals and accelerate resettlement efforts, including outside Chicago.
Six heated tents are now under construction at the landing zone and are expected to open “in the coming weeks,” according to a state press release.
The announcement comes as several migrants told Block Club this week they’ve been sleeping in CTA warming buses at the site while waiting for a bed in one of the city’s 27 shelters.
When asylum seekers arrive in Chicago via bus, train or “other means,” they are received at the landing zone to await placement in a city shelter, Office of Emergency Management and Communications spokesperson Mary May said in an email Tuesday. Once there, they are provided with meals, blankets, warm clothing and space on a “warming bus.”
As of Wednesday morning, 39 people were at the landing zone, according to city data, a sharp decline from more than 300 people on Monday.
“As migrants arrive, we are able to provide immediate needs and warming buses will be available as they wait for shelter beds to become available,” May said.
Asked if migrants will be temporarily housed at the intake center, a spokesperson for Pritzker on Wednesday said the “intent” of the facility is not to have people remain there overnight.
The state has also provided funding since November to New Life Centers and Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago to support resettlement efforts at the landing zone, an initiative that will be expanded once the intake center is completed, officials said.
“Through this support, to date, over 2,500 individuals have been reunited with family or friends rather than entering the shelter system,” according to Wednesday’s news release. “With the new, heated intake center, the State will expand staffing and services, with data indicating the number of new arrivals requiring shelter can be reduced by 10 percent.”
More than 29,100 migrants have come to Chicago since August 2022, when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott began busing thousands of people, many from Venezuela, to Democratic-led cities in protest of federal immigration policies.
At least 535 buses have arrived in the Chicago area since Jan. 1, 2023, according to city data.
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