CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) - Thursday’s City Council Budget hearing illustrated the tensions being generated by the continuing migrant crisis here in Chicago.
Brandie Knazze, the commissioner of the Department of Family and Support Services was getting an earful. Alderwomen Nicole Lee said people want to help the new arrivals but they're feeling strained.
“Migrants are getting more desperate…They're staying in police stations longer, they’re asking residents for food, for money, for assistance, for all kinds of things,” Lee said.
Alderwoman Monique Scott complained about neighborhood people being shut out of their own Park District facilities to accommodate the migrants.
“You’re removing us from a program and a building that we pay taxes for and I can’t get that back…That brings a lot of distrust, and it brings a lot of hatred that doesn’t necessarily have to be, because one group feels like you’re taken away to give to someone else that doesn’t have that same equity,” Scott said.
Commissioner Knazze said the City needs to move some people out to other areas in Illinois and get more federal funding.
Earlier in the hearing, South Side alderman William Hall, part of the Chicago delegation that’s been meeting with local officials in Texas, said the path for Chicago is clear.
“What we need to do is … what San Antonio’s doing: Put pressure on the federal government,” he said. “San Antonio wants to be a partner in conveying the truth, and San Antonio wants to be a partner in making sure that the wraparound services that are funded by Homeland Security include basic necessities, such as a coat and other things.”
That federal assistance has allowed Catholic charities and City workers to help migrants along the way, Hall said.
Officials in San Antonio said Chicago deserves the same kinds of assistance. Hall added that there can also be more coordination.
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