(The Center Square) – A taxpayer-funded homeless shelter owned by the state of Illinois has some Chicagoans up in arms.
Kenwood and Hyde Park residents said there is prostitution and drug trafficking at the facility near Lake Michigan on the city’s South Side.
The shelter is located in a former hotel at 4900 S. DuSable Lake Shore Drive. The facility opened in 2023 for newly-arrived non-citizens but now also houses homeless citizens.
Chicago Flips Red founder Zoe Leigh described what she saw when she visited the site.
“All of these strollers, all of these new cars, all of these bicycles, kids outside playing, young adult men out there smoking on the corners. I’m like, this is Hyde Park. This is crazy. I remember saying, ‘This is like the new projects,’” Leigh said.
Leigh said hundreds of seniors who live nearby have voiced opposition to the shelter’s location during town hall meetings, but they say city and state officials have failed to respond.
According to Leigh, police don’t respond because of the city’s refusal to cooperate with federal immigration officials.
“There’s nothing that they can do, because there’re an executive order. We’re living in a lawless third country, Chicago. I call it, ‘Chi-zuela,’ because you can’t do anything and the mayor will not address it,” Leigh told The Center Square.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s chief of staff, Cristina Pacione-Zayas, was asked Tuesday about the shelter staying open when members of the community want it closed.
“We want to ensure that every Chicagoan that is experiencing housing instability or homelessness has a place where they can lay their head and be on a path to self-sufficiency and self-determination, and we will continue to defend those investments in those specific resources,” Pacione-Zayas said.
She said it was the state of Illinois that originally opened the shelter.
“At this point, that’s the location that has been identified by the state and we are in the process of working with the state to move forward with these particular investments,” Pacione-Zayas added.
Pacione-Zayas was an Illinois state senator from 2020-2023.
