CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) - A community activist is raising questions about the city’s effort to house asylum-seeking migrants in a way not offered to Chicago’s own homeless population.
One night a year, when the temperatures dip to zero for the first time, activist Andrew Holmes camps out in front of City Hall to bring attention to the problem of homelessness in the Chicago area.
He said he has advocated to have empty Chicago Public School buildings turned into shelters for the homeless, but they haven’t been until now, and will only house asylum-seeking migrants dropped off at the city’s front door from Texas.
“I’ve got nothing against the immigrants but I do have something against when you don’t take care of (your) home base here, and you don’t put these people here that’s laying on the streets, inside these shelters or schools when we’ve been asking for it. So, now you can find the money to put the immigrants in there. What about the people still sleeping on the streets?” Holmes said.
Andrew Holmes said there’s no reason the city can’t house both migrants and Chicago’s own homeless in school buildings that have stood vacant for years.
The city plans to house at least 250 migrants in the old Wadsworth School building in the Woodlawn neighborhood as early as next week. They are among more than 3,000 migrants bussed to Chicago from Texas by that state’s governor.
Holmes said he believes it’s “disrespectful” to Chicago’s homeless to house migrants in vacant schools but not the city’s own homeless.
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