The Chicago city government is preparing to shut down and fence off one the city’s largest and most visible homeless encampments ahead of next month’s Democratic National Convention.
Chicago recorded 18,836 unhoused people in 2024, a jump from 6,139 in 2023 – the city blamed the influx of illegal immigrants seeking shelter as the primary reason for this increase. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that nearly all the 22 people living in the tent city off the Dan Ryan Expressway agreed to be relocated to a city-operated shelter in the former Tremont Hotel. However, those accommodations will only be funded by the city through Aug. 31, which is slightly more than a week after the convention concludes.
The city’s relocation program is being offered to residents in three other homeless encampments, although none of those locations will be fenced off.
“These residents have been targeted for these summer initiatives, not primarily because of DNC,” said Andrea Chatman, deputy commissioner of homeless and gender based violence, who cited “some health or safety issues happening in those locations.”
While it is not uncommon for cities hosting political conventions and other major events to temporarily move homeless encampments out of the view of prominent visitors, the city insists this relocation is being requested by the federal government.
“We do know that [the U.S. Department of] Homeland Security could come and ask, and that thoroughfare along Roosevelt Road is a place that we anticipate individuals who are staying at McCormick Place will be traveling to the United Center,” said Brandie Knazze, commissioner of the city’s Department of Family and Support Services, in a recent interview. “My plan is to make sure that we are thoughtful, that we are doing it in a trauma-informed way and that it’s not disruptive.”
Knazze’s comments appeared to be contradicted by U.S. Secret Service spokesman Joseph Biesk, who said the security maps related to the convention are not being finalized until later this month. But the preliminary maps that show the potential secure zones around the convention’s main sites did not include the encampments.
One homeless resident being relocated told the Sun-Times that the city was more concerned about its image than the needs of the homeless, adding that the Biden administration has not done enough to address the plight of the unhoused.
“They just want us to get out of here,” said the man, who declined to be identified.
Photo: Rymasheuskaya Volha / iStock
;
Gross. They are capable of doing the work only when pushed to hide.