Another North Side homeless tent camp is targeted by the city

After several dangerous fires, a North Side homeless tent camp is scheduled to be torn down by the city beginning Tuesday.

An estimated 15 to 20 people are living in tents and other structures along the Chicago River north of Bryn Mawr Avenue in Legion Park.

City officials say the fires, three just this past summer, pose a serious threat and the wooded riverfront areas are hard to reach.

The city will allow the unhoused people to set up tents in other areas of the park, but all structures and camps along the riverfront will be removed.

Tahsin Rahman, who lives nearby on North Jersey Avenue, said the fires made it “very dangerous” for neighbors who want to access the park.

Some camp residents, who spoke to the media Monday morning, described a community in which they looked out for each other.

They ask what will happen if they’re forced to leave the park because their shelters are torn down.

“I am a human being,” said Carmen Laude, a 72-year-old woman in a wheelchair. “We need help.”

Tracey Alcoser, who aids Laude and helps her get to medical appointments, said the people living in the tent camp received limited notice about the city’s cleanup plans, which are expected to take as many as three days.

She said she doesn’t know if she’s going to be able to stay in the park, where she’s been living for eight months.

Alcoser, 36, built her structure along the river and said she’s been on waiting lists for years to receive subsidized housing.

The city action is not related to any anticipated deployment of National Guard troops to Chicago.

The operation planned for Legion Park has some similarities to another one last year that cleared an encampment just a short distance south of Bryn Mawr. During that event, city officials worked to find shelters for those who were then living along the river in the now-cleared tent camp.

And yet another North Side homeless camp in Gompers Park near North Pulaski Road and West Foster Avenue has been the center of a debate over unhoused policies for well over a year. While some people living in the park did find shelter with the help of the city, others remain. And additional unhoused people have moved into that park.

All three areas are in the 39th Ward, which is represented by Ald. Samantha Nugent.

“For far too long, the Legion Park encampment has posed a continuous and dangerous safety risk to its occupants, nearby residents and first responders in the wake of multiple onsite fires,” Nugent said in a statement Monday.

Unhoused people and their advocates have said any clearing of homeless camps needs to include placement of individuals in shelters.

At least one camp resident said he’s seen little effort by city officials to actually house those now living in Legion Park.

“They say they want to help but they haven’t done anything,” said 28-year-old Abdul Razak Mohamad Rafik.

Contributing: Esther Yoon-Ji Kang, Candace Dane Chambers