The city of Chicago spent nearly $1 million to convert a Brighton Park lot into a migrant shelter before the controversial project was shut down this month by Gov. J.B. Pritzker over environmental concerns, city officials confirmed Wednesday.
But Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office says the $985,621.21 of taxpayer money didn’t go to waste because the land at 38th Street and California Avenue “has been assessed and further prepared for future use.”
State environmental regulators determined there were too many harmful metals and other toxic substances detected on the property for it to safely serve as a winterized tent shelter housing up to 2,000 of the asylum-seekers who continue to arrive to Chicago from the southern U.S. border.
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Johnson’s office had contended the land could be made safe for temporary residential use, over the vehement objections of environmental activists and a vocal contingent of Brighton Park residents who protested for weeks against any shelter coming to the Southwest Side neighborhood.
The mayor pushed back Wednesday when asked if the Brighton Park investment was a mistake.
“There were 4,000 people living in police districts and the airports, 4,000 sleeping outside, on the floor,” he said. “Could I ask a different question? Is it a mistake to not address the crisis? To not plan for it? One would say resoundingly that yes, it would be a mistake not to plan for it. I’m planning for it with everything in me.”
Before Pritzker’s office pulled the plug — despite committing $65 million to private contractor GardaWorld for work to create a winterized tent community — city officials spent the $985,600-plus on equipment, materials and professional services.
The price tag for the city, which has been leasing the Brighton Park land from a private owner since late October at $91,400 a month, includes the cost of the environmental assessment that found toxic chemicals, including cyanide, pesticides and the long-banned, cancer-causing compounds known as PCBs.
Cristina Pacione-Zayas, Johnson’s deputy chief of staff, said the city wouldn’t be reimbursed by the state.
“The GardaWorld contract is with the state. So, whatever Garda expenses were incurred, that would be the state’s responsibility,” she said.
A state spokesperson said the Illinois Department of Human Services does not expect to lose money on the Brighton Park site, and plans to use GardaWorld for converting a former CVS in Little Village into a shelter for migrants.
“No money has been paid and there are no plans at present to pay GardaWorld for work done at 38th and California. IDHS appreciates GardaWorld’s partnership and will leverage their expertise and experience to quickly stand up the Little Village site,” the spokesperson said.
The Brighton Park camp is off the table, but the tent city idea is not, Pacione-Zayas said.
“The land assessment is still happening at 115th and Halsted. And right now, we’re looking at 2024 with our predictive models as well as our cost savings and trying to figure out within our [housing and shelter] stock what makes sense to consolidate and what makes sense to continue to expand,” she said.
With all of the controversy generated by the tent city proposal, Pacione-Zayas was asked whether the Johnson administration hoped to avoid using tents.
“My hope is that we’ll be able to shelter people as needed and put them on a path to self-sufficiency. How we get there is highly dependent upon what is incoming and what is available with respect to resources,” she said.
The number of migrants being bused to Chicago — many by Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in an effort to shift the burden of resources to cities led by Democrats — has declined in recent weeks since President Joe Biden’s administration reinstituted a policy deporting many Venezuelan arrivals at the border.
More than 25,700 migrants have made it to Chicago since last year, and 13,777 are living in shelters across the city. As of Wednesday morning, another 354 were staying in police stations and 221 were at O’Hare Airport awaiting shelter spots.
