The city of Chicago has spent nearly $300 million to shelter and care for asylum-seekers — but not all of the money is accounted for.
The state of Illinois launched a page on its comptroller’s website to track city spending in dealing with the migrant crisis, but Mayor Brandon Johnson hasn’t been entirely transparent about funding for 18 of the city’s 27 shelters.
Alderman Andre Vasquez, the chairman of the city’s migrant committee, told the DailyMail that it wasn’t right they weren’t receiving the full picture.
“So I think something that we’ve been looking at is how to really get more mandated reporting from the government as they’re making decisions, because our constituents are asking us those very questions,” Vazquez said.
The city has also received criticism for outsourcing staffing of the shelters to private companies, hiding how those funds were spent, NBC reported. City records reveal that Kansas-based Favorite Healthcare Staffing, which holds the contract to staff the shelters, has been paid more than $206 million. Equitable Social Solutions, a Kentucky based company, was paid $45 million for its role in helping to facilitate which shelters are selected.
Some shelters are receiving as much as $344,000 a week in taxpayer dollars, which will cost up to $17 million over the course of the year.
Johnson said the city would not build more shelters, and he is fighting with Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-IL) to make good on his promise to build state shelters.
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Nearly 34,000 migrants have been in the care of the city ever since Texas Gov. Greg Abbott began bussing asylum-seekers to the Windy City in 2022. The city reached its peak in December with more than 15,000 immigrants in its care.
The conditions of the shelters are poor, with one shelter suffering from a measles outbreak. At another, a 5-year-old boy died. Johnson said there was “no evidence the condition of the shelter caused the death of this young boy.” Videos and photos showed that where the boy died, there were 2,300 migrants huddled together under a leaky roof. Johnson began to enforce the city’s 60-day shelter stay rule the weekend of March 15. Three immigrants were removed, and 31 immigrants were given extensions.
