Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has been criticized for refusing to be completely transparent about where hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars have gone to the city’s homeless shelters amid a migrant crisis.
The Windy City has struggled to care for more than 34,000 asylum seekers bused in from the border by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott over the past 18 months.
It has spent $300 million on the crisis and has been fighting with the state of Illinois over where to build more shelters and is currently battling a measles outbreak at one of the shelters.
The state attempted to calm fears about how taxpayer money would be spent in the crisis by launching a page on the state comptroller’s website that would track the crisis.
However, the city has refused to reveal where all the funds are going, and Democrat Johnson has been evasive when asked by the press.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has been criticized for refusing to be completely transparent about where hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars have gone to the city’s homeless shelters amid a migrant crisis.
The city has only provided full transparency in funding for one-third of the city’s 27 shelters.
However, those who did receive up to $344,000 a week in taxpayer cash, which is the price of The Inn in Chicago. It has 1,500 beds. That would equate to $17 million over the course of a year.
Other shelters such as the one in the city’s Pilsen neighborhood receive $280,000 a week, and the Ogden shelter receives $150,000 a week. These shelters serve 2,000 and 1,000 immigrants, respectively, and have pocketed millions in the last three months.
The Pilsen shelter is characterized by a measles outbreak that now stands at 14 cases, and the city was forced to require vaccination, according to WTTW.
What has caused even more outrage is that the city is allegedly hiding where those funds go by using private companies from out of state to staff the shelters. NBCChicago reported.
City records indicate that $206 million has gone to the position of Favorite Health Care, a Kansas-based company whose high cost has infuriated Chicago officials.
A Kentucky-based company called Equitable Social Solutions has been awarded $45 million to identify where shelters are located.
Councilman André Vásquez, president of the city council’s immigrant committee, is angry that the city does not disclose the profits those companies have made.
The Windy City has struggled to care for more than 34,000 asylum seekers bused in from the border by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott over the past 18 months.
The Chicago Inn serves as a 1,500-bed shelter. They reportedly earn 344,000 a week in taxpayer cash.
The South Ogden Avenue shelter in Chicago will receive $150,000 a week to house 1,000 immigrants
The Pilsen shelter is characterized by a measles outbreak that now reaches 14 cases, forcing the city to require vaccination.
‘I think it’s a little more translucent than transparent. You get some information, but not the whole picture,’ Vázquez said.
None of the companies or owners involved have commented on the situation.
“So I think something we’ve been looking at is how to get the government to require more reporting as it makes decisions, because our constituents ask us those same questions,” Vázquez added.
At least one homeowner offered his building as shelter and met with city officials before being told not to proceed to the meeting.
But when pressed for greater transparency, Johnson dodged the question.
“Thank you for that question,” Johnson said. “Once again, we will meet you right where you are.”
DailyMail.com has contacted Mayor Johnson’s office for comment.
The number of asylum seekers in the city’s shelters appears to be declining after peaking at 15,000 in December, when officials warned the system had “reached capacity.”
A worrying 69 percent of Chicagoans disapprove of Johnson’s handling of the immigration crisis.
Venezuelan immigrants are bussed to Chicago by Texas Governor Greg Abbott last December.
Chicago residents have held rallies against Mayor Johnson’s immigration policy, including this event last year against his plans to convert a park district cottage into an immigrant shelter.
Arriving immigrants were forced to sleep in Chicago police stations at the beginning of the crisis.
At the time, Johnson joined the mayors of New York and Denver, which are also inundated with immigrants, in calling for the crisis to be declared a federal emergency, freeing up funds to bail out struggling cities.
Shelters in converted warehouses in Chicago have been filled to the brim with newcomers living in poor conditions, prompting the city to take over other locations.
Johnson has insisted that the city would not open any more migrant shelters and called on Illinois Governor JB Pritzker to make good on his promises to build his own.
Mayor Johnson himself says the huge influx of immigrants is unsustainable, but he can’t turn them away because Chicago is a “sanctuary city.”
He blamed both the Biden Administration and Texas for his city having difficulty serving the approximately 15,000 asylum seekers. crammed into 28 shelters throughout the city.
Governor Abbott has sent more than 25,300 migrants to Chicago since August 2022, on buses.
Chicago attempted to get them to designated locations during business hours and confiscated buses that did not follow these rules.
However, bus companies responded by dropping migrants up to 60 miles from Chicago, and Abbott began sending them on charter flights.
Conditions at Chicago migrant shelters have been under the microscope since five-year-old Jean Carlo Martínez Rivero died on December 17.
Johnson maintained that there was “no evidence that shelter conditions caused this young man’s death.”
Volunteers trying to help asylum seekers as best they can argue differently, presenting lists of concerns to city officials months before Jean’s death.
Photos and videos inside the shelter where he died showed 2,300 migrants crowded together in frigid temperatures under a leaky roof.
One video showed a boy with what appeared to be a bandage on his head lying on a thin folding bed, distracting himself with a tablet.
Another shows a different child coughing and crying while having his temperature taken and being examined by volunteers.
A third video showed water dripping from the ceiling and pooling on one of the beds.