The Evanston City Council on Monday is set to discuss applying for Cook County funding to provide temporary shelter for displaced migrants sent to Chicagoland from the southern border.
The funding is available for the housing of “new arrivals,” defined by the county as “an individual who crossed the Mexico/U.S. border on or after August 1, 2022, with the intent to stay permanently, and who does not possess any permanent or interim U.S. legal status (which does not include being in parole status), such as legal permanent residency, a student or work visa, etc.”
Funding can be used to pay for rent, repairs and improvements to make sites operational for use as temporary shelters including food, wraparound and
resettlement services. Estimated operating costs would reach approximately $2 million, not including necessary repairs.
Applications for the funding are due April 19.
According to a memo in the Monday meeting agenda, the city hasn’t previously considered applying for the funding because it wasn’t aware of any properties vacant or safe enough that would suffice. The city was notified on March 28 of a possible site with city staff and the Evanston Fire Department inspecting the property Wednesday.
This site, located at 1020 Church Street, is a two-story office space with enough open space and smaller offices to house anywhere from 60 to 65 individuals along with a kitchenette, two shower stalls and multiple restrooms.
Before being able to take anyone in, the building will require several repairs including installation of a fire sprinkler system wherever people are expected to sleep, more bathroom and shower stalls, upgrades to electrical and HVAC systems and more.
Another possible site mentioned in the memo is the soon-to-be vacant Morton Civic Center, where city operations are currently housed. City offices are set to move to a leased office downtown starting in July and could house more people than the office building at 1020 Church Street. Since the city owns the building, grant funding wouldn’t have to be used to pay rent and could be used solely for repairs that are needed in the building. Those repairs were the driving force behind moving city operations downtown as the city wasn’t open to spending the money needed to bring the building up to par.
The city reached out to Connections for the Homeless, a local homelessness nonprofit, to take on the role of managing the shelter. Connections’ Director of Communications Eric Ruder said the nonprofit welcomes conversations about partnering with the city on the shelter.
Connections CEO Betty Bog said it’s important to take every opportunity to build more shelter to supplement the severe housing shortage.
“Many in the Evanston community and staff have been searching for ways to assist new arrivals,” read the memo, “Applying for grant dollars to convert space into a temporary shelter could move the City toward managing a transitional shelter at 1020 Church indefinitely — on the one hand, this could be an asset to the City … on the other hand, it could place meaningful strain on the City.”