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UKRAINIAN VILLAGE — A temporary shelter that’s housed hundreds of asylum seekers in Ukrainian Village over the past year will close Dec. 1.
The shelter at 526 N. Western Ave. was one of more than two dozen opened by the city last year as Chicago faced a surge of migrants bused here by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and other border-state politicians.
The city leased the vacant warehouse on the property and undertook renovations to accommodate up to 200 people. The shelter was initially supposed to house single men, but following community pushback, city officials later announced it would house families instead.
The number of migrants coming to Chicago has slowed considerably since the shelter opened last year. At the end of 2023, around 15,000 asylum seekers were living in 27 active shelters. On Monday, that number was at fewer than 4,500 — a reduction officials have mostly contributed to President Joe Biden’s curtailing of asylum seeker entry at the southern border.
Facing that continued decline, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration announced last month it would close most of the city’s temporary migrant shelters and consolidate them into existing “legacy” shelters for unhoused people.
Numerous other shelters have closed or will close over the next few weeks under that plan, dubbed the “One System Initiative.” Several migrant shelters are expected to stay open permanently.
“The temporary shelter on Western in the 36th Ward will be closing down effective December 1st. Thank you neighbors for your patience and partnership throughout this time,” Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36th) announced on social media over the weekend.
A spokesperson for the city’s emergency management office directed a request for additional comment to the Mayor’s Office, which did not immediately respond.
The facility on Western Avenue near Grand Avenue was one of the city’s lower-profile migrant shelters, although some neighbors were opposed to it. Others were more welcoming and voiced support for the plan.
The city’s announcement of the shelter did lead two neighbors to file a lawsuit in October 2023 in an attempt to block it from moving forward. They argued the city had violated neighbors’ due process rights by relying on a state disaster proclamation to skirt normal zoning and construction laws for shelter.
The lawsuit is still pending, with a hearing scheduled for next month, attorney Neal McKnight told Block Club.
As the city scales back resources for migrants under its shelter consolidation plans, asylum seekers will no longer be automatically guaranteed a shelter bed. Moving forward, the city will limit first-time shelter placement for migrants to those who have been in the United States for 30 days or less.
The One System Initiative will add an additional 3,800 beds to the 3,000 already in homeless shelters managed by the Department of Family and Support Services, according to a city press release. Of those shelter beds, 2,100 will be funded by the city, with 1,700 paid for by the state of Illinois.
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