CHICAGO– Homeless people living in one of Chicago’s largest and most visible encampments will be moved to a shelter next week so the area will be emptied before the Democratic National Convention in August, a city official said Friday.
The camp is along Interstate 90 southwest of downtown, an area that is the main thoroughfare between the two sites where the Democratic convention will be held starting Aug. 19.
The camp will be emptied and permanently isolated on Wednesday, Chicago Department of Family and Support Services Commissioner Brandie Knazze said Friday.
The 29 people who were there were informed in June, Knazze said. As of Friday, there were only six left, she said. They were being moved to a municipal shelter in a former hotel that also once housed the Ditka restaurant. It was converted into a homeless shelter last year.
“This is really part of our unprotected strategy,” Knazze said. “Our goal is to be caring, trauma-informed, and help people on their journey.”
Knazze said the city was moving people now because it assumed federal authorities would require them to do so later for safety reasons.
“We don’t want to wait and be told the week before or the week after,” she said. “It’s really about getting people in.”
After the convention, the city will work with the relocated people to find housing or other shelter, Knazze said.
“If people are being forced to move due to the DNC or any major event, it is extremely important that they are connected to permanent housing,” said Patricia Nix-Hodes, director of the Coalition for the Homeless of Chicago.
It’s also imperative that the site remains available in the future for people who are homeless, she said.
The number of homeless people in Chicago in January was three times higher than it will be in 2023, according to a city count. There were more than 18,800 homeless people in the city as of January 2024, compared to about 6,100 the previous year.
Chicago has reported the arrival of more than 44,000 migrants since 2022. The city began enforcing a 60-day limit on shelter stays in mid-March.
The city has reported 1,411 people leaving shelters so far because of the limits. As of Thursday evening, the city said more than 17,000 people have found other housing since officials began keeping data in 2022.
In March, rejected voters a one-time property tax on properties over $1 million to pay for homeless services.
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Associated Press video journalist Teresa Crawford contributed to this report.
