Chicago has spent nearly $300 million on migrant crisis response, city says
CHICAGO (CBS) – In the past nearly year-and-a-half, Chicago has spent nearly $300 million responding to the ongoing migrant crisis, according to the city's latest numbers.
That number does not include the cost incurred by other agencies like Chicago Public Schools, the Department of Streets and Sanitation, or Cook County Health.
About $206 million of the total has gone to Favorite Healthcare Staffing to operate the city-run shelters. The group has come under scrutiny by some aldermen who have said the city was paying them too much.
There are currently more than 11,000 migrants in 23 shelters in Chicago, and four more buses of migrants were expected to arrive in the city on Friday.
Questions over how the city would be able to cover the costs of housing and treating migrants have persisted since the first buses began arriving in the second half of 2022. The State of Illinois and Cook County last month announced another $250 million to help the response.
Volunteers in local suburban communities, like Oak Park, have stepped up to take in some migrants at shelters.
One of the hurdles is the slow pace at which migrants have been able to obtain legal work permits so they can seek employment. CBS 2 has found that the process to get approved is complicated, starting with the long application written entirely in English.