Chicago is moving along with its plan to close three migrant shelters by the end of the month, having already closed two.
With the two closures, there are 15 migrant shelters still open in the city, with approximately 2,600 available beds. Chicago officials have cited President Joe Biden’s federal mandate to limit the number of asylum-seekers per day as the reason they were able to consolidate their shelters.
“The shelter fulfilled its mission,” Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez told WGN9 Chicago.
“At one point, we hosted almost 2,600 people there,” Sigcho-Lopez said. “That is not the way to address the issue of unhoused residents across the city.”
City officials said they have been working with the state and Cook County to calculate the needs of migrants already in Chicago, as well as plan for any expected or unexpected arrivals.
In totality, 3,030 beds will be eliminated by closing the three shelters, but people who are in them can move to a yet-to-be-announced shelter, in which they will “continue to receive the same services,” a spokesperson for the city said.
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The third migrant shelter slated to be closed will cease operations on Oct. 21.
“It appears that the number of people crossing the border has been significantly diminished because of the policies of the Harris-Biden administration. And so, I feel like, you know, we’ve got to be prepared and have some capacity, but I don’t think quite as much capacity as we needed before. So hopefully, that reduces some expenditures by the city, county, and state,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-IL) said earlier regarding the closures.