At a special meeting Thursday night, the Oak Park Village Board approved plans to move about 100 asylum-seeking migrants – now housed in the village at multiple sites – to a single location and provide social services, including learning English and job training.
The board approved a temporary lease agreement with Archdiocese of Chicago to use one of its buildings, and trustees green-lighted a plan to ask for more grant funds. All three measures passed, with trustees Ravi Parakkat, Lucia Robinson and Cory Wesley voting against each.
Village officials had previously announced the migrants will be housed at the vacant St. Edmund’s Parish School, 200 S. Oak Park Ave., which is owned by the Archdiocese of Chicago. At the meeting, it was stated the new shelter will operate for four months, from Feb. 26 through June 30.
In that time, the migrants will be paired with community service providers to learn English and basic work skills with the goal of transitioning them into permanent housing paid for through self-sustaining jobs, according to plans discussed at the meeting Thursday.
The migrants, who have been living in Oak Park since November, are currently housed in local churches, at the Carleton Hotel and at the West Cook YMCA, but those agreements are set to terminate end at the end of this month.
The new, single location housing is being funded using money the village received through some $2 million in grants from the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus. About $1,244,000 will be used to pay the nonprofit Oak Park Family Transitional Shelter to operate the shelter, according to the agreement trustees approved at the special board meeting.
With the approval Thursday to ask for more grant money, and if received, the grant funding total would increase to $2,070,750, village officials explained.
The Archdiocese of Chicago is not asking for rent at St. Edmund’s, and the operations are expected to include meals, heat, water, transportation and other services, according to village officials.
Some of the funding will also be used to hire three full-time temporary village employees so the St. Edmund’s site will have one village worker on site all day. Officials said Oak Park taxpayers will not pay for any of the services.
Trustee Susan Buchanan asked for some specifics about the three new village employees. Assistant Village Manager Kira Tchang said the staff would be on hand at all times to oversee operations.
“This would be to ensure the village has some direct visibility into the operations at the shelter,” Tchang said.
Village attorney Paul Stephanides said the village’s insurance carrier requested a permanent presence at the site. Tchang explained that while the three staffers haven’t been selected yet, they don’t need to be in place for the shelter to open on schedule.
However, the 24-hour village staffing is a priority for both the village and for migrant advocates.
“Safety and security of the residents is uppermost and foremost, so that’s job No. 1,” explained Jack Crowe, the executive director of OPFTS. “Just another set of eyes in the facility is very welcomed.”
Much of the debate on the issue had already occurred two nights before the special meeting, at the regular board meeting that stretched past 11 p.m. The meeting Thursday night lasted about 30 minutes and questions were few – mostly about the temporary workers and the short-term housing goals.
Crowe said his group was in favor of the temporary measure, expressing hope the migrants could live on their own by the end of June.
“Honestly, our role is to work our way out of business,” said Crowe. “We will be an abject failure if, in June, we still have 100 people there. Our goal is to not have anybody there.”
Trustee Brian Straw asked what would happen if the shelter space is empty well before June.
“Well, if it’s empty by the end of April, we’ll shut down,” Crowe said. “I can imagine all kinds of other good things and uses, but at this point we have a lot of work over the next two weeks to get this up and running.”
Jesse Wright is a freelancer.