Nearly 160 migrants will be housed temporarily in a YMCA and a hotel in Oak Park at a one-month cost that may exceed $370,000, village officials announced Tuesday.
The announcement comes six days after cold weather prompted the village to take in migrants from the Austin police station in Chicago and house them at the village police station and a local church.
The asylum-seeking migrants were to move from two local churches to the West Cook YMCA and The Carleton of Oak Park Hotel, the village announced in a news release.
About 44 migrants had been sheltering at United Lutheran Church for several days, with volunteer support, but the church is no longer available as of Tuesday.
Another 116 or so have been residing at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church since Nov. 1, but church officials have committed to providing shelter only through Saturday.
And 20 individuals are taking shelter at Calvary Memorial Church in Oak Park, with volunteers committing to continue that effort for 30 to 60 days.
Transitioning from the churches will add to the village’s escalating costs.
The six days from Nov. 1 through Monday cost the village more than $40,000 for migrants at Good Shepherd. Most of that was about $20,000 for security, $16,000 for translation and $4,000 for food, plus staff salaries and overtime.
The village estimated costs for housing the migrants until Dec. 4, when the village’s current emergency disaster resolution ends, at “upward of $370,000.”
Record crossings this fall on the Mexican border and the migrants’ transport to Chicago and other cities by bus have led to controversy over how to handle the migrant surge. Oak Park spokesman Dan Yopchick told the Tribune in an email that more than 75 public comments at the Village Board meeting Monday were mostly positive.
“The vast majority of these remarks thanked the Village of Oak Park and its staff for stepping up efforts to assist migrants living in the community, while also imploring others to do the same,” Yopchick wrote. “The Village knows that may not reflect the sentiment of entire community, however. Like other municipalities that are doing what they can to assist in this crisis, there is a concern among some regarding where additional support may come from in the future.”
The village is to be awarded $250,000 through a Supporting Municipalities for Asylum-seeker Services grant. That is in addition to the $150,000 that Illinois granted last month.
The Village Board on Oct. 30 also appropriated $150,000 from its general funds to support asylum-seekers, totaling $550,000 in available funding.
The West Cook YMCA has agreed to make one floor of 40 rooms available to women, children and families this week. Each room can accommodate up to three individuals under village standards for occupancy.
The cost to the village for these rooms, which will house up to 50 individuals in total, is $8,000 per month. That does not include costs for needed furniture, materials and maintenance services. Additional rooms for single males may be available at the YMCA for $250 per month.
The Carleton Hotel will have 13 rooms available this week with additional rooms ready later this month. The initial block can accommodate up to five people per room. The cost for each room, which is available for up to 28 days, is at a discounted rate of $80 per night, but stays cannot exceed 30 days.
Support services managed by Housing Forward are to include daily staffing for service coordination, behavioral health support, transportation, and laundry. Housing Forward is reallocating resources from assisting the current unhoused population in the community to the asylum-seekers, the news release said.
Volunteers may sign up for Oak Park’s Community Emergency Response Team. Volunteers with an interest in medical emergency response can apply to serve with the Oak Park Medical Reserve Corps. For more information about volunteering, call 708-358-5700 Monday-Friday between 7:30 a.m.-4 p.m.
More information about the efforts to assist asylum-seeking migrants in Oak Park is available at www.oak-park.us/emergencyresponse23.
The village’s emergency resolution, approved unanimously, calls for the temporary suspension of purchasing requirements such as formal bidding procedures and board contract approvals when quick action is deemed necessary. That declaration is set to expire on Dec. 4.