Oak Park trustees could decide tonight if an emergency disaster declaration put in place to assist asylum-seeking migrants will be extended beyond the Dec. 4 date already set.

At the Nov. 13 Village Board meeting, trustees considered whether to extend the emergency disaster declaration but pushed off the vote to this week’s meeting. The emergency disaster declaration was approved and adopted at an emergency board meeting earlier this month and was given a Dec. 4 expiration.

During the meeting on Nov. 13, Village Manager Kevin Jackson and Assistant Village Manager/HR Director Kira Tchang sought input from the Village Board regarding an extension of the declaration, additional funding authority and policy direction for new arrivals to the village.

In a memo to the Village Board issued earlier the same day, Tchang estimated approximately $365,000 in expenses through Dec. 4, and about $62,000 to be a one-time expense. Costs include relocating about 162 migrants – who range in age from 3 years old to 60 – between Nov. 7 and Nov. 10, primarily to the Carleton Hotel and the West Cook YMCA, according to the memo.

With current spending rates, which are approximately $300,000 per month, the existing fund — including Supporting Municipalities for Asylum Seeker Services grant dollars and federal pandemic-related American Rescue Plan Act money — would be exhausted by mid-December, the memo stated.

Trustees voiced differing opinions during their discussion at the meeting.

Trustee Brian Straw suggested extending the emergency disaster declaration through January. He pointed out that the Village Board will have a break through December, and he did not want the village to run out of authority in its absence.

“I’m not really entirely comfortable with saying there’s no room at the inn,” Straw said, regarding the support ending in December.

Trustee Cory Wesley is not opposed to the extension, but he said he would like a definitive plan in place in order to secure his vote. If the Village Board decided to extend the support until January, it would likely continue through March “at the very earliest,” totalling $1.2 million, Wesley noted.

With this extension, Wesley said he was “having trouble with squaring some of these numbers together.” He pointed out that the spending was for 162 people, when the village consists of 54,000 residents, including pre-existing homeless.

“As a person who has experienced inequities in his life, I have a problem with creating inequitable government response,” Wesley said. “And I think if we are devoting such a large amount of resources to such a small amount of people, it really sets a precedent for continued inequitable response going forward in different situations. I find that problematic.”

Trustee Susan Buchanan said she supports the extension to give flexibility to the village. But she wants to see an evolution where a task force is established and the roles of the community partners increase “without having the entire burden on the village government.”

Village President Vicki Scaman expressed hope that the systems established now to aid the asylum seekers, along with those already in place, would lead to enhanced support for all homeless in the village.

“Anything that we’re able to do to strengthen our services for our overall homeless, through the work that we’re doing right now, with the partner agencies that also serve the same homeless … I want to see these efforts also be strengthening our ability as a community to respond to all people who need housing in our village,” Scaman said.

Ryan Hudgins is a freelancer.