The city plans to remove a large homeless encampment in Humboldt Park early next month, according to the local alderman.
Ald. Jessie Fuentes, 26, shared on Facebook Friday that the Humboldt Park encampment would be officially emptied on December 6. After that date, Chicago police and the Chicago Park District would begin “enforcing” the city code’s existing ban on overnight stays and tents in the park, Fuentes wrote.
In his post, Fuentes writes that camp residents would be offered “access to supportive services” as well as the option to move into low-barrier housing or shelters, or shelters with fewer entry rules . They added that outreach workers and service providers would be at the park on Dec. 6 to provide emotional support and connect residents to resources such as health care.
“This milestone reflects 18 months of dedicated efforts to eliminate systemic barriers, provide individualized care, and ensure that every person has access to dignified and safe living conditions,” Fuentes wrote Friday on Facebook.
A group of 20 outreach workers and nonprofit leaders have since signed a joint letter criticizing the projects as potentially harmful to the homeless community, which was sent Monday to Fuentes and the homeless chief of Chicago, Sendy Soto, by Shiloh Capone, executive director. from Street Samaritans, a nonprofit homeless awareness organization.
The letter detailed concerns about the “accelerated timeline” of the camp’s planned closure, the lack of sufficient “housing pathways” for residents and the potential for criminal enforcement of the sweep.
“Measures such as sweeps, confiscations of property and sanctions for vital activities create harm, erode trust and move us away from solutions that address the root causes of homelessness,” reads the letter.
Soto could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Fuentes’ chief of staff, Juanita García, wrote in a statement to the Tribune Tuesday evening that despite the letter’s assertions, the camp’s closure is “far from being accelerated” as part of the “collaborative approach to several aspects” of the neighborhood to fight against homelessness. in partnership with other municipal agencies and community organizations.
Three “expedited move events” have taken place at Humboldt Park over the past year and a half, where camp residents have been able to work with case managers to find housing options. One hundred and six households were thus connected to the housing pathways, according to García.
“We deeply appreciate the work the organizations signing this letter are doing to support our unhoused neighbors and appreciate their thoughtful advocacy for a trauma-informed, housing-first approach,” García wrote in the statement. “Our goal remains to connect encampment residents to resources that support their transition to stable living conditions while addressing public safety and health concerns.”
Since the summer, the city has emptied a number of homeless encampments as part of a broader initiative to close those sites and relocate residents to shelters or other housing. Homeless advocates, however, have criticized these strategies as insufficient and potentially traumatic for encampment residents, emphasizing that the only solution to the homeless problem is permanent housing.
Sergio Ortiz, a community outreach specialist with Street Samaritans who has worked with the Humboldt Park homeless community for 18 years, said that when he stopped by the encampment Tuesday, 65 to 75 people were still living there.
When Ortiz first visited the park after the closure was announced, he cried “just to hear the fear,” he said.
Even among Ortiz’s clients who were matched with housing through expedited moving events, many are still living in the Humboldt Park encampment — “still waiting, still in the tent, still waiting to be matched, still waiting for the keys, still waiting for the documents to be processed,” he said.
Most of his clients “don’t want to leave the Humboldt Park community,” he added, which has made them reluctant to lodging options in other parts of the city. There are no homeless shelters in the Humboldt Park neighborhood, although Fuentes advocates for the creation of one.
“They don’t want to go to a shelter,” Ortiz said of many of his clients. “They’re begging us to be there with them, because they don’t want to leave and they don’t want to get arrested, at the same time.”
Even Humboldt Park outreach workers were “taken by surprise” Friday when they learned the camp would close in two weeks, Ortiz said.
Monday’s joint letter criticized the abruptness of the shutdown, noting that overlapping the two-week notice period with the Thanksgiving holiday weekend could add “additional strain to already overburdened outreach staff during a time of severe personnel problem.
“As organizations involved in this work every day, we have witnessed how rushed closures without viable alternatives disrupt customer relationships, undermine trust and put the health and well-being of people at risk without shelter,” the letter reads.
In his emails to Fuentes and Soto, Capone wrote that the letter signatories hoped to “collaborate” with the city to “collectively support a more deliberate and inclusive approach to this closure.”
One of the main concerns raised in the letter was Chicago police’s possible enforcement of the camp closure starting Dec. 6, which she called “criminalization.”
Although Chicago police officers will be present on December 6 during the camp cleanup, they will not “serve as the first point of contact for unhoused people,” according to García. Their role will be “to help encourage individuals to access shelter or relocate while respecting their dignity,” García wrote.
“Unhoused residents remaining in the park on moving day will engage directly with their social worker or outreach worker, DFSS and CDPH representatives, 26th Precinct staff, and only then CPD if necessary,” García wrote in an email to the Tribune.
“We are committed to a human-centered process that prioritizes support and does not criminalize anyone. »
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