A report finds that some 2,500 migrants are living in squalid conditions in Chicago in a city-sponsored facility that was converted from a warehouse to a migrant shelter.
A report claims that the shelter is infested with rats and cockroaches, is covered in rotting food and garbage, has water quality issues, and has open sewage problems, among other issues, Chicago’s WTTW reported.
The complaints about the conditions at the shelter in the 2200 block of South Halsted Avenue were revealed in emails sent to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson in October well ahead of the incident in December when a migrant child died at Comer Children’s Hospital after he took ill in the shelter.
Several other migrants at the same shelter had also fallen ill in the days after the child died. City officials have still not released any cause of death for the child.
WTTW reported that an email dated from October was sent to city hall alerting Mayor Johnson’s administration about the wretched conditions at the shelter. It was reportedly sent by 11th Ward Alderwoman Nicole Lee.
The station initially filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the emails but received documents that were nearly entirely redacted. However, government watchdog group FOIA Bakery obtained the unredacted messages and shared them with the station.
“The redacted parts allege the shelter had insufficient bathrooms, exposed pipes with raw sewage, cockroach infestation, a possible outbreak of illness with many people being sick, insufficient provision of meals and water,” WTTW reported.
Further emails showed city officials had replied to the emails and had been working to confirm the conditions.
Recently arrived migrants sit on cots and the floor of a makeshift shelter operated by the city at O’Hare International Airport on Aug. 31, 2023. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Alderwoman Lee told the station she “remains concerned about the living…