City of Chicago has spent $156.2 million on vendors in migrant crisis, data show
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A new state-funded shelter housing migrants opened in Little Village Wednesday – as the city reveals new numbers that give us an idea of how much the migrant crisis has cost.
Both Mayor Brandon Johnson and Gov. JB Pritzker have said the federal government needs to step in to help with more funding for asylum seekers, and more space.
It is not clear what will happen if Congress does not act on the issue. But we did learn Wednesday about millions of dollars the state plans to spend on the migrant mission.
The new shelter is located in a former CVS drugstore at 2634 S. Pulaski Rd. About 220 asylum seekers are set to move in.
"It's well-managed, and I feel good about the opportunity there," said Gov. Pritzker.
Miles away, migrants are still living inside heated buses at the downtown landing zone – at Desplaines and Polk streets. The people staying on those buses represent about 300 of the around 600 people waiting to move somewhere.
The new Little Village shelter will only slightly alleviate that number.
"I actually visited yesterday. It's phenomenal what we've been able to do in a relatively short period of time, and to accommodate very young children," Gov. Pritzker said. "You know early childhood education is very important to me. Making sure these young children have a place to play - even in a very difficult situation – that's been put into this site."
The latest space in the old CVS is just a drop in the bucket for the number of people who need housing. Funding and space are running out.
Mayor Johnson and Gov. Pritzker continued their pleas to Washington Wednesday for more funding.
"We haven't seen those dollars yet – not nearly what we should," said Pritzker. "The federal government needs to do much more."
Meanwhile Wednesday, the City of Chicago uploaded its data on migrant vendor spending. The total spent is $156.2 million between December 2022 and January of this year.
That figure includes some money from the state, money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and money from the city. But it does not appear to include how much the city has spent within its own agencies – such as the Department of Streets and Sanitation, or the Chicago Public Schools to educate school-aged new arrivals.
Inside shelters, vendor Favorite Healthcare Staffing – a Kansas-based firm – continues to be the highest bidder. The city paid Favorite Healthcare Staffing almost $97 million to assist the migrant mission between December 2022 and the current month.
Going forward, CBS 2 has learned the City of Chicago and State of Illinois modified their contract with Favorite Healthcare Staffing to spend an additional $30 million with the staffing firm.
In the contract, the city says that amount was money they did not know would be needed at the start – saying in part, "[T]he circumstance said to necessitate the change in performance were not reasonably foreseeable at the time the Agreement was signed."
The contract is supposed to last until October of next year.