Mayor Brandon Johnson merges shelter programs, closes migrant 'landing zone' in Chicago

Mayor Brandon Johnson's administration closed the city's landing zone for newly arrived asylum seekers slightly ahead of schedule, announcing Friday a new shelter intake center on the Lower West Side open to anyone experiencing homelessness.

The closure of the landing zone — at 800 S. Desplaines St. in the West Loop — is part of a plan to merge two shelter systems for the unhoused. In October, Johnson announced the city would end shelters specifically designated for newly arrived asylum seekers by the end of the year.

Former Mayor Lori Lightfoot developed a separate shelter system for immigrants in 2022 in response to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott busing thousands of asylum seekers to Chicago and other liberal-leaning cities.

“We definitely started in the crisis response mode, and many, many of you remember having people sleeping in police stations and at the airports and the city working very diligently to keep up and open shelters,” said Beatriz Ponce de León, deputy mayor of immigrant, migrant and refugee rights. “But we knew that that response was not going to be sustainable, and that we had to also build toward other types of support that put people on the path to resettlement.”

Anyone seeking a shelter bed will have to make a request through 311 under the city's new One System Initiative.

On Friday, the city opened a new intake center at 2241 S. Halsted St. that will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week with capacity for 200 beds and available for single adults, said Maura McCauley, first deputy commissioner of the Department of Family and Support Services.

There wasn’t much activity outside of the brick Halsted building Friday afternoon. Two white doors were marked "entry" in red.

The building connects to a former warehouse that once served as a makeshift and overcrowded shelter for migrants.

At that shelter, a 5-year-old boy, Jean Carlos Martinez, became ill last December and later died from sepsis and a bacterial infection that causes strep throat.

Asked if conditions will improve at shelters in Chicago, the city is working on better training and is moving away from hiring contractors and instead working with local social service agencies to manage the spaces moving forward, McCauley said.

As of Friday, an estimated 2,476 migrants were living in the city-run shelters — far fewer than the roughly 15,000 during a peak period last winter.

The city will stop creating a daily census of this migrant population as it moves toward a merged system, said Harley Jones, who is helping coordinate the city's response to migrants.

The city plans to close a shelter at 1310 N. Elston Ave., which housed about 135 single men and women, by the end of the month.

Two shelters serving migrants, at 4900 S. DuSable Lake Shore Dr. and 7353 S. Cicero Ave., are operated by the state and will become part of the merged system, Ponce de León said. The state is providing funding to help immigrants in shelters find stable housing.

The three other shelters that had housed migrants will now become part of the One Shelter System, she said. Those shelters are located at 640 W. Irving Park Road, 3034 W. Foster Ave. and 2641 S. Calumet Ave.

The merger of shelter systems comes as the city’s department overseeing them loses its leader, Brandie Knazze, the commissioner for the department who recently announced her resignation.

The changes also come weeks before Donald Trump starts a second term as president. The president-elect promised his supporters to ramp up deportations of immigrants.

Ponce de León said Johnson is committed to upholding the city’s welcoming city stance.

“We are working on guidance that will go to all departments and agencies so that they know what to do in the case of any federal agents coming and, you know, requesting assistance with deportation raids,” Ponce de León said.

Contributing: Adriana Cardona-Maguigad, Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere