State to open 2 new migrant shelters in Chicago to house nearly 2,000 people
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Two new state-supported shelters will open to house hundreds of migrants in Chicago.
One shelter is near Midway International Airport, and the other will be in Hyde Park. The Hyde Park shelter is a former hotel that's been used in the past as a quarantine facility for new arrivals during a measles outbreak.
The site can house up to 750 people.
Near Midway Airport, construction at another former hotel began last week. The plan is to move in families next month. The facility can holdup to 950 residents.
"In Illinois, we're implementing our comprehensive data-driven plan to improve our response to the ongoing humanitarian crisis and amplify the effectiveness of State, County, and City investments," said Governor JB Pritzker in a statement. "The additional temporary shelters will ensure that shelter capacity and wraparound services remain accessible to asylum seeker families as they transition out of our system of care and on to independence."
The governor's office said it would not share the address of either location for safety and privacy concerns.
City officials have told CBS 2 they anticipate keeping the 17 shelters the city and state that were already operating open until at least after the Democratic National Convention in August.
Still, some migrant families have said they've been evicted from shelters, despite there being space for them. The city has been executing its 60-day shelter stay policy, offering to reprocess any asylum seeker who asks to reenter the shelter system. As of earlier this month, the city said 970 individuals had exited the shelter system because of the 60-day limit. Of those, 554 had returned to the landing zone at Polk and Desplaines streets to be processed and 536 had reentered the system.
