NORTH MAYFAIR — Greater than a month after town held a fast rehousing occasion on the Gompers Park homeless encampment, most residents are nonetheless ready to get into housing.
Within the meantime, the variety of tents on the park has nearly doubled whereas new indicators point out residents must relocate by Could 12 to make method for park restoration work.
“It’s going to be arduous for us to go away as a result of we don’t have wherever to go,” stated Laura, a Gompers Park resident who got here to the park a couple of month in the past.
On March 5, the Division of Household and Help Providers carried out an accelerated transferring occasion at Gompers Park to attach people who find themselves experiencing homelessness with housing items, rental help, furnishings and social providers.
The transferring occasion got here after months of tensions between encampment residents and a few neighbors. In September, the Restore Gompers Park Coalition submitted a petition with greater than 450 signatures to metropolis officers asking for an accelerated transferring occasion. Throughout an April 9 Park District Board of Commissioners assembly, Lisa Stringer, a co-founder of Restore Gompers Park, stated there have been tents within the park for greater than 1,000 days.
Stringer stated the encampment began with only one tent earlier than rising lately. The encampment is break up, with just a few tents on the Foster Avenue facet of the park and extra on the Pulaski Avenue facet.
The variety of tents has fluctuated drastically this yr. Throughout final month’s transferring occasion, there have been 12 tents on the Pulaski Avenue facet and 4 on the Foster Avenue facet. As of Tuesday, there have been 21 tents on the Pulaski Avenue facet of the park and two on the Foster Avenue facet.
“There actually must be a decision to this difficulty,” Stringer stated through the Board of Commissioners assembly.
Indicators posted March 19 alongside the Foster Avenue facet of Gompers Park stated the Park District code banning unauthorized tents from metropolis parks can be enforced within the space beginning April 1. However officers with the Mayor’s Workplace, the Division of Household and Help Providers and the Park District agreed to delay enforcement after assembly the day earlier than, stated Park District spokesperson Michele Lemons.
Former thirty fifth Ward Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa additionally began his first day as superintendent of the Park District on April 1, the initially deliberate enforcement date.
“This delay in enforcement will permit service suppliers extra time to work with residents to make sure the restoration tasks and park websites for applications are carried out in a fashion that’s in line with Chicago’s values,” a assist providers division spokesperson stated in an electronic mail.
Indicators posted final week stated that enforcement on the Foster Avenue facet of the park would now start Tuesday. A number of neighbors and housing advocates gathered on the park Tuesday morning to see what would occur.
Division of Household and Help Providers outreach staff had been seen checking on the tents simply earlier than 10 a.m. Tuesday. One Foster Avenue encampment resident was not current when outreach staff arrived, and the opposite spoke to Division of Household and Help Providers by means of their tent. Outreach staff instructed the resident that park applications would start within the space quickly and urged them to relocate to the nook of the park close to the Pulaski and Foster intersection.
The resident stated they had been busy and declined momentary shelter placement.
Indicators additionally went up across the Pulaski facet of the park final week. The indicators state enforcement will start Could 12 in and across the lagoon space, the basketball courts and the parking zone. A Park District spokesperson stated fencing will go up across the affected areas Could 12.
The encampment is being moved to permit for the development of a $50,000 nature play house. Lagoon restoration work and the resurfacing of the parking zone may also happen this spring and summer season, in line with the Park District.
Tents will nonetheless be allowed in areas of the park that don’t flood and won’t be impacted by applications or building this yr, a spokesperson with the assist providers division stated. The spokesperson declined to establish the precise places tents can be allowed.
Youth baseball and softball observe is slated to start on the park this month — however groups won’t observe at Gompers Park if the tents that sit close to the Foster Avenue baseball diamond are nonetheless there, Ryan Johnson, president of the Gompers Park Athletic Affiliation board, beforehand instructed Block Membership. The athletic affiliation will as an alternative use the baseball diamonds at close by Eugene Subject Park and Mayfair Park till the tents are gone, he stated.
The Athletic Affiliation first stated it was contemplating relocating in February after three fires and a canine assault on the park. One encampment resident beforehand instructed Block Membership he heard the fires had been unintended and attributable to propane tanks getting used for heat. Monica Dillon, of Chicago Northwest Facet Homeless Outreach, stated she was accustomed to the canine concerned within the assault and the animal’s proprietor positioned it in foster care.
Through the April 9 Board of Commissioners assembly, Adam Gianforte, of thirty ninth Ward Neighbors United and Collective Chicago, stated that when questions of safety or crimes happen on the encampment, they need to be addressed on a person foundation.
“There isn’t a crime that justifies collective punishment towards an encampment by forcing all of them to maneuver,” Gianforte stated. “Merely making homelessness in our public parks unlawful does nobody any good. What we want is extra shelter and housing and empathy within the meantime.”
In response to the assist providers division, 28 households participated within the Gompers Park accelerated transferring occasion. As of final week, 15 households had chosen a housing unit, 10 nonetheless wanted to pick a unit and three had moved into housing.
A assist providers division spokesperson stated 9 Gompers Park residents accepted momentary shelter placement whereas they work in the direction of everlasting housing.
Through the transferring occasion, metropolis officers stated that moving into housing as soon as a unit is chosen can take 30-90 days.
Desiray, a Gompers Park resident who declined to share her final identify, stated she put her identify on the housing record 4 instances and waited a yr and a half earlier than she came upon she wasn’t within the metropolis’s database. She acquired related with housing earlier this yr and hoped to maneuver right into a suburban Northlake condo March 1, however the prolonged federal background test has delayed her plans.
Desiray continues to be residing within the encampment whereas she waits to be authorized.
Regardless of extra tents going up within the park, metropolis officers stated they haven’t any further transferring occasions deliberate for Gompers.
A Gompers Park resident named Mike stated he participated within the transferring occasion, however the one items he was proven had been on the South Facet. Mike, who declined to share his final identify, used to stay in Wrigleyville and stated he needs to remain on the North Facet as a result of he’s accustomed to the world.
Mike’s been searching for his personal residences to see if the constructing managers will work with town’s rental help applications. However he stated he’s pursued 4 or 5 residences with no luck.
A assist providers division spokesperson stated the reasonably priced housing items supplied by means of the Gompers Park transferring occasion had been recognized by Chicago Rents, a program that connects renters with authorities subsidies and incentivizes constructing house owners to lease vacant items to low-income tenants.
There are at present no Chicago Rents items on the Far Northwest Facet, stated a spokesperson with All Chicago, the group that leads this system.
Through the April 9 Board of Commissioners assembly, Rosa requested neighborhood landlords to work with Chicago Rents.
“One factor that will be extraordinarily useful on this state of affairs is native residences,” he stated.
A Park District spokesperson stated a committee is being developed to assessment and replace the district’s insurance policies and procedures associated to individuals residing in parks. The committee can have its first assembly later this spring.
Through the Board of Commissioners assembly, Sarah-Jayne Ashenhurst, a member of thirty ninth Ward Neighbors United, stated the scope of town’s housing disaster “is way bigger than the assets accessible for fast housing occasions may ever remedy.”
“That’s the reason we strenuously object to the pressured displacement and criminalization of our unhoused neighbors, and the hassle to corral them into much less seen, much less protected areas of the park,” Ashenhurst stated.
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