After members of the Oak Park Village Board previously expressed their disappointment with the grant funds awarded to the village to support migrant asylum seekers, the board approved Monday night establishing a fund to match the grant amount.

The measure on the meeting agenda called for also establishing an emergency task force, but that didn’t happen. Village spokesman Dan Yopchick confirmed that the board only approved matching $150,000 received to aid the migrants.

The village had sought to get financial assistance through a grant to support its efforts to aid migrants who are officially, temporarily housed at a Chicago Police Department station near the Oak Park border. The migrants have shelter inside the brick building but also in scanty tents outside of it and across the street in the police station parking lot.

“This humanitarian crisis continues to impact many communities across the country. Those arriving from the U.S/Mexico border are women, men, and children who have fled their home countries and endured a journey over 2,5000 miles,” village staff stated on the meeting agenda, from a diversity, equity and inclusion perspective, as part of seeking support for the task force request. “There are several key areas of support of which migrants are in need, including housing, food, health access, legal services, and overall wraparound support. Heightened attention is also needed in regards to language access.”

Several people who support the idea of the village aiding the migrants spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting Monday night.

Migrants temporarily housed at the 15th District police station just across the village’s border with the city of Chicago, in the Austin neighborhood, and at the 25th District at 5555 W. Grand, come to the St. Catherine-St. Lucy-St. Giles parish in Oak Park twice a week, officials have explained. At the church, they are offered a breakfast, shower, donated clothes and toys, as well as a kitchen to prepare food.

To support services for migrants as they cross into town, Oak Park applied for a $7.5 million grant from the Illinois Department of Human Services and Metropolitan Mayors Caucus for housing, food and health care – among other critical needs – and had identified community partners to assist in these efforts.

The Metropolitan Mayors Caucus accepted applications for grant awards for municipalities serving asylum seekers. But on Sept. 29, the village was notified it was warded only $150,000, a fraction of its initial request.

The awarded funds are allocated for “planning purposes,” Danielle Walker, Oak Park’s chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer, said at the Oct. 23 Village Board meeting.

She said village staff was “not anticipating” this nor knew that was “what the money could be used for.”

Village President Vicki Scaman called the awarded money “extremely disappointing” both in terms of the amount and the designated purpose. Her top priority, she said, is continuing to advocate for more funding from the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus.

“We do already have a plan,” she said. “We don’t need a consultant. And the organizations that are currently aiding, they need the help now.”

While Trustee Brian Straw believes the Village Board needs to “continue urgently pushing for the money” from the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus, he also recognizes that colder temperatures have arrived and provide a major issue for migrants who are sheltering outside in camping-style tents.

“This is a humanitarian crisis,” Straw said. “These are people who are seeking a better life here in America. If you can find someone who believes more in the American Dream than an immigrant who walked a thousand miles to come here, I challenge you to find them. We need to figure out every way in which we can step up because when we look at ourselves and say ‘What would I do?’ when faced with this kind of humanitarian crisis, it’s here, it’s now, it’s blocks away.”

Resident Cate Readling also called on elected officials to “move every lever possible to financially support the systems of relief that we know exist to get people into stable housing.”

“GoFundMe, online wish lists and a different church floor every night of the week is not and cannot be a sustainable solution for this collective challenge,” she said as part of the Oct. 23 meeting.

Ryan Hudgins is a freelancer.

Pioneer Press staff contributed.