The mayor of Evanston, an ultra-liberal Chicago suburb, wants to apply for a share of a $20 million county grant to convert the city’s abandoned office buildings into new migrant shelters to help bring in immigrants. ing. The hands of Chicago officials.
Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss (Democrat) announced He said he intends to apply to Cook County’s recently created $100 million “disaster response and recovery” fund, $20 million of which is set aside for immigrants, to help build a vacant space near Church Street and Oak Avenue. It was intended to assist in the restoration of an office building. Biss wants to turn the building into a new migrant transition center and shelter that can house more than 60 illegal border crossers, the newspaper said. Chicago Sun-Times.
The county fund is Created In November 2023, we will encourage suburbs to step in and provide jurisdiction in the immigrant housing game that the city of Chicago is spending hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on.
Mr. Biss took his idea to apply for a portion of the funding to the Evanston City Council and publicly endorsed and “buy in” to the idea as a sign of unanimous support for attracting immigrants to the suburb. I wanted to persuade them to accept it.
“This could be an asset to the city as migration is expected to increase due to climate and other reasons,” a memo on the plan says. “On the other hand, it could create a significant burden on the city.”
Mr. Biss also seems to want to serve as a beacon of support for leftists who are encouraging suburbs to join efforts to welcome illegal aliens. The initiative met with stony silence in much of the county. So-called “disaster response and recovery” funds have been available since November, but few suburbs are actively trying to use the money to benefit undocumented immigrants.
However, the details of Evanston’s plans have not yet been revealed. The exact cost for the private entity to run this eventual shelter is unknown, but the memo states it could cost $2 million annually. Added to that is the cost of adding fire suppression systems, showers and bathrooms, bedrooms and other upgrades to the building. The cost will obviously be in the millions, but it’s unclear how much of that will come from county funds and how much will fall on the shoulders of Evanston taxpayers.
The entire project is unlikely to be very effective in relieving pressure on Chicago to care for undocumented immigrants, as the facility will only care for about 60 or 65 immigrants once it opens.
“It’s like a drop in the bucket and it breaks my heart,” admitted Evanston policy coordinator Allison Leipsiger. “But he has 60 people who need a place to stay here.”
Still, Evanston is an ultra-liberal suburb, so if Mayor Biss wanted this as a political ploy, he’d probably get it done, albeit at a cost.
The city, home to Northwestern University, has a history of pushing far-left ideals. Just a few years ago, Evanston became the first U.S. city to pass “reparations” for its black residents.
Also in 2013, the city enact The so-called “offensive weapons ban.”
Recently, the left-wing city council Floating A resolution calling for a ceasefire was also introduced in Israel, a move that prompted an ethics complaint to the city’s Equity and Empowerment Commission.
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