CHICAGO — The City of Chicago is starting to return a number of migrant shelters to their Chicago Park District activities, with some planned to begin migrant relocation as early as today.
City officials tell WGN News migrants will be moved out of five Chicago Park District facilities that were being used as temporary shelters, starting Saturday.
The largest of those facilities, the Gage Park Fieldhouse, was housing around 250 migrants, while the Broadway Armory in Edgewater was housing around 200, Piotrowski Park in Little Village around 140, Brands Park in Avondale around 100 and Leon Park in Rogers Park around 30.
These five facilities served as temporary shelters for the past ten months, but when Mayor Brandon Johnson made the announcement earlier this week that they would return to normal park district services, he said the buildings were no longer needed as shelters.
The move represents an intent by the city to return access to Chicago Park District facilities to the local Chicago community, with renovations to facilities planned to take place, as well as the restoration of Chicago Park District youth and athletics activities.
The plan for migrants moved Saturday is to relocate them to other shelters around the city, while migrant families with children will be relocated to temporary housing in the area of their shelters so their children can continue attending local area schools.
Those at Piotrowski Park will be moved close by to a larger facility that can house up to 200 people, according to city officials.
“People want to help migrants. They want to help our brothers and sisters coming to this country,” said Ald. Michael Rodriguez (22nd Ward). “But we were successful in recently opening a new facility just down the street on Pulaski Road. The fact is, Piotrowski Park will open services brand new with a better facility.
“It will serve both our new brothers and sisters and our community residents who have been here for decades.”
City-wide, there are about 10,000 migrants staying in 23 city-run shelters.
This article was originally published by a wgntv.com . Read the Original article here. .