Oak Park is getting nearly $2 million more to aid the groups of asylum seekers currently being housed in the west suburb, and plans to spend the bulk of it to run a new shelter that will put the migrants under one roof instead having the current multi-site setup.
According to a village news release Friday, the village was notified that day it had been awarded a Supporting Municipalities for Asylum Seeker Services grant through the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus. Oak Park applied for the funds Jan. 24.
“The Village of Oak Park is grateful to receive another generous SMASS grant from the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus,” village spokesman Dan Yopchick told Pioneer Press in an email. “When the Village applied for the grant last Wednesday, we were hopeful for a quick response and are appreciative of that.”
The money had been sought to help Oak Park continue to provide services to nearly 200 migrants — most, if not all, of whom arrived in the village after being at the 15th District Chicago Police Department station in the city’s Austin neighborhood at the border with Oak Park.
The migrants, mostly from the embattled South American nation of Venezuela, were bused to Chicago from Texas by that state’s governor after they crossed into the country at the Mexico border.
At the Austin police station, they were given shelter on the floor inside the building and in tent encampments outside of it. In late-October, when the area saw its first snowfall, Oak Park officials moved to bring some of the migrants there. Two churches started out assisting the village with housing them. Then, as more were helped, refuge was made available at a local YMCA and at The Carleton hotel.
As deadlines approached for the migrants to move out of those places, the village sought more financial aid to continue to assist. Both the city of Chicago and state leaders have called on the federal government to step up helping with what has been dubbed a crisis. Oak Park has tapped its own village coffers and turned, again, to the Mayors Caucus and its SMASS grant.
“Previously, the Village has received $400,000 in SMASS grant funding that has been used in combination with $650,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funding as lost revenue in the general fund allocated by the Village Board. That money has allowed Oak Park to operate its temporary shelter program for asylum-seeking migrants in the community since November 2023,” officials stated in the release.
This latest round of SMASS has to be spent by the end of June, helping Oak Park to extend its aid to migrants until then, according to the release. A previous deadline to house migrants had been set for Feb. 29.
Oak Park officials explained in the release that about $1.24 million of the new grant funds will be distributed to a local nonprofit entity — not immediately identified — to operate a new temporary shelter in the village through the end of June 2024.
“This shelter will not be a continuation of the Village’s current shelter program at the West Cook YMCA or The Carleton Hotel of Oak Park, as those sites are scheduled to be unavailable after February 29,” the release states. “Rather, plans are taking shape for a new shelter to be located at the former St. Edmund’s school building (200 S. Oak Park Ave.). That building is owned by the Archdiocese of Chicago.”
