Max Herman/Borderless MagazineUnder the new ordinance, city departments must make public weekly reports on migrant evictions starting in May.
Chicago approved a new measure requiring departments to publish weekly reports detailing how many migrants are being evicted from the city-run shelter system.
On Wednesday, the City Council approved the bill to increase transparency surrounding Mayor Brandon Johnson’s controversial 60-day migrant shelter eviction policy. A separate ordinance, adding $70 million toward migrant services, was postponed.
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The reporting ordinance, which will go into effect next month, aims to standardize existing reporting and provide accountability surrounding shelter evictions and conditions, Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th) said during last month’s Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights meeting.
The measure will require the Department of Family and Support Services (DFSS) to share reports that would include anonymized data on evicted migrants’ age, gender, country of origin, original eviction dates and length of shelter stay. The data will be made public in the Chicago Data Portal.
Vasquez previously told reporters the ordinance would codify regular reporting surrounding temporary shelters to ensure protections are in place should there be similar situations in the future.
The ordinance also requires DFSS to publish biweekly reports on how many evicted migrants are returning to shelters from the landing zone; grievance reports and resolution data and information on how many migrants received extensions on their stays from Johnson’s updated 60-day shelter policy.
Advocates and volunteers have long called for greater transparency around the city’s shelter systems, and some said the new ordinance is a step in the right direction.
“I think we’re always looking for more data and more transparency,” says Annie Gomberg, a volunteer who has been supporting migrants in police stations and shelters since last year.
The city began its evictions of migrants from shelters in mid-March and announced its closure of five Chicago Park District shelters shortly after.
Gomberg said one migrant she met at a landing zone, after being evicted from a shelter, was told to return to the landing zone for an updated shelter assignment. He ultimately returned to the same shelter and had to miss a day of work in the process.
“What’s the difference between having an individual exemption and going back [to the landing zone] to start over,” Gomberg said. “We’re just showing people that we’re in charge — and I don’t think that that’s a good enough reason to destabilize families and people’s lives.”
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