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The shelter is located in a former hotel at 4900 S. DuSable Lake
Shore Drive. The facility opened in 2023 for newly-arrived
non-citizens but now also houses homeless citizens.
Chicago Flips Red founder Zoe Leigh described what she saw when
she visited the site.
“All of these strollers, all of these new cars, all of these
bicycles, kids outside playing, young adult men out there
smoking on the corners. I’m like, this is Hyde Park. This is
crazy. I remember saying, ‘This is like the new projects,’”
Leigh said.
Leigh said hundreds of seniors who live nearby have voiced
opposition to the shelter’s location during town hall meetings,
but they say city and state officials have failed to respond.
According to Leigh, police don’t respond because of the city’s
refusal to cooperate with federal immigration officials.
“There’s nothing that they can do, because there’re an executive
order. We’re living in a lawless third country, Chicago. I call
it, ‘Chi-zuela,’ because you can’t do anything and the mayor
will not address it,” Leigh told The Center Square.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s chief of staff, Cristina
Pacione-Zayas, was asked Tuesday about the shelter staying open
when members of the community want it closed.
“We want to ensure that every Chicagoan that is experiencing
housing instability or homelessness has a place where they can
lay their head and be on a path to self-sufficiency and
self-determination, and we will continue to defend those
investments in those specific resources,” Pacione-Zayas said.
She said it was the state of Illinois that originally opened the
shelter.
“At this point, that’s the location that has been identified by
the state and we are in the process of working with the state to
move forward with these particular investments,” Pacione-Zayas
added.
Pacione-Zayas was an Illinois state senator from 2020-2023. |
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