Around Rogers Park - Migrant Arrivals an Ongoing Challenge for Chicago
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Chicago is proud of its “sanctuary city” reputation and will tell anyone who wants to know that it is a welcoming place. No neighborhood in Chicago has a greater claim to being inclusive and diverse than Rogers Park. But the ongoing campaign of busing migrants to Chicago, mostly from Texas but also from other boarder states, is posing a challenge to the city, its residents and its resources.
In Rogers Park, the city recently signed a contract with the owners of Motel 8 at 7300 North Sheridan Road. The City intends to use this facility primarily for families since it offers greater privacy with in-unit bathrooms and showers. This facility has reportedly been fully booked by the City through December of this year.
Elected officials continue to look for new ways to house this never-ending flow of migrants into the city. Recent estimates peg the number of migrants to the city at about 20,000 since the summer of 2022. The challenge ahead is that this migration is accelerating and will continue for the foreseeable future with increased numbers of new migrants continuing to arrive at our doorstep on a nearly daily basis. As the number of migrants to Chicago swells, so do the tensions between city residents, elected officials and other stakeholders (non-profits, real estate owners and service providers).
How to handle this influx of people in great need of assistance has no easy answer. Nor does the question of how to resolve the ugly political differences that divide red and blue America. As a prime symbol of Blue American, Chicago has a bullseye on its head. This debate and will surely continue as new busloads of migrants continue to arrive for the foreseeable future.
