Latest news with #SendySoto
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Yahoo
Tents still in place at Gompers Park weeks after moving event began
CHICAGO (WGN) — Six weeks after the start of what the City of Chicago dubbed an 'Accelerated Moving Event' – tents at a Northwest Side park remain in place and others have even been set up. WGN Investigates visited Gompers Park on Wednesday and found more than two dozen tents still in place, even as the city began the work to clear the park. City agencies descended on Gompers on March 5th, offering services and housing – an approach the city's Chief Homelessness Officer Sendy Soto talked about during a one-on-one interview with WGN Investigates last year. WGN Investigates: Investigating public corruption, crime & fraud 'We are not in the business to arrest people who are unhoused, that is just not going to solve, one, the issue that people want to see solved,' Soto said during the interview. WGN Investigates has been following what happens at the park since September when cameras captured a glimpse into the lives of those who call the Northwest Side grounds home. While some have moved on to housing, many more remain at the park. Recently, through a Freedom of Information request, WGN Investigates obtained a 'coordinated outreach plan' from the city's Department of Family and Support Services (DFSS). Chicago pushes back plans to clear out homeless encampment in Gompers Park 'Shelter has been offered consistently but residents have declined due to shelter beds not being in the Northwest Community area,' the outreach plan said. The plan also detailed a timeline that points to June as the beginning of a lagoon restoration project and with it the coordinated clean-up and removal of tents. Currently, yellow signs are letting park residents know about what's to come, but even that hasn't been enough to persuade them to clear out. Chicago faces shortage of affordable housing 'They're not forced to leave in the sense that if were offering housing, that is really the option that we would want them to pursue. If that's not where they would like to go, then they can choose to go somewhere else, but that site eventually is going to be cleaned up and brought back to its original state,' Soto said when asked whether residents would be forced to leave. For now, at least half a dozen organizations are visiting the park each week trying to convince residents to move before the park is officially cleared out in June. In a stamanet shared with WGN Investigates on Wednesday, DFSS said that locations with a lot of public attention tend to have people moving in once an Accelerated Moving Event begins in order to try and secure housing. Fire renews calls for city to remove homeless encampments at Gompers Park 'Unfortunately for those who have relocated to the Gompers Park encampment following the park's March 5 Accelerated Moving Event, this will not speed up access to housing for these individuals, DFSS said in the statement. The moving event is now on its 43rd day, similar events have gone on for as many as 90 days before the area is completely cleared. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
City to move people in Gompers Park homeless encampment to more permanent housing via city's AME program
CHICAGO — After long delays, people living in a homeless encampment in Gompers Park on the city's Northwest Side will get a chance to secure free support services and more stable, permanent housing. The outreach by several city departments is part of what the city calls 'accelerated moving events,' or AMEs. The AME in Gompers Park will begin Wednesday morning. PREVIOUS: Crews to begin clearing out remaining tents of homeless encampment at Gompers Park The city says it has moved about 3,000 people under the AME program — which it says is completely voluntary —since it started in 2020, and that it's been coming to Gompers Park since the fall to work with those staying at the encampment there. The city also says it's been transparent with how Wednesday's move in Gompers Park is going to happen and that it will be the 35th AME it has done over the past several years. Some community members, however, claim the city is not being completely transparent about the process. According to the city, 29 people at the Gompers Park encampment will be moved Wednesday into more permanent housing, including into apartments in the City of Chicago. PREVIOUS: Chicago agencies dismantle smoke stacks and propane tanks at Gompers Park homeless encampment 'Ideally, everybody has the choice to move into the communities that they want to move into, and the types of apartments or dwelling units that they want to move into,' Sendy Soto, Chicago's Chief Homelessness Officer, says. 'But we don't have that housing stock in the City of Chicago. 'What we will be offering (Wednesday) is apartments that landlords have opted to be part of (in the AME program). So if we don't have landlords in the area of Mayfair that have opted into this program, we're not able to provide service to (people who need housing) in the area of their choice.' The city says it costs about $30,000 per each household every year for the AME program. With 28 households set to be moved on Wednesday, that equates to $840,000 annually for that move alone. The city had budgeted $2.8 million for the AME program when it started in 2020. For 2025, the city has budgeted $25 million for the program, due to the end of federal funding the city had previously relied on. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
