CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — The City of Chicago will tap nearly $100 million in federal COVID funds to help address the ongoing migrant crisis in the city, officials announced Friday.
The City said some of its Federal American Rescue Plan funds — which were received to address COVID in 2021 — will now be shifted within the Chicago budget to help out with sheltering at least 15,000 asylum seekers who are now living in the city.
About $400 million remain from the rescue plan funds, much of which is currently earmarked for community projects. Officials said they don't anticipate needing to spend that money on supporting migrants in 2024.
Johnson's top aides, though, told the Sun-Times that funding won't move the needle much on handling the situation.
That's part of why Mayor Brandon Johnson has continued to call on more money from the federal government. Better Government Association Chicago President David Greising said the federal government should be more involved — and while federal money will help, a change in national policy could also be in order.
"Helping the migrants get work," Greising said. "Temporary work visas would be helpful because people are arriving here with, really, nothing to do. They can't legally work. Finally, assistance at the border."
Although restrictive laws on migrant bus arrivals are being enacted in several suburbs, some mayors and village councils have told WBBM that they aren't prepared to take in migrants. They plan to continue sending migrants to Chicago, which those officials described as the most prepared city in the region.
Greising said Chicago "has not been very well prepared."
"They have tried," he said. "There was a big encampment at Brighton Park that was supposed to house 2,000 people, though it'd be in tents during the middle of a Chicago winter. Oak Park has offered to house some people, but many in the suburbs have said, 'Hey, keep this problem inside the city limits of Chicago.'"
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