Wadsworth Elementary School located in the 6400 block of Chicago’s Woodlawn area, was vacant. That was until former Mayor Lori Lightfoot converted it into a migrant shelter causing controversy in the city of Chicago. Brandon Johnson’s administration has reversed that decision and has moved migrants to different areas according to CBS news.
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In a statement by Deputy Mayor of Immigrant, Migrant & Refugee Rights Beatriz Ponce de Leo says “We’ve been consolidating some of our smaller shelters, and just as part of our overall plan to save taxpayer dollars, bring down the cost of the mission, and Wadsworth was next in line.” said Deputy Mayor of Immigrant, Migrant & Refugee Rights Beatriz Ponce de Leo.
Woodlawn residents are ecstatic that the shelter is closed because of the difficulties that they had to endure while the migrants were housed there, including noise, crime and loitering. The capacity at the shelter for migrants should have 200. Unfortunately there were over 600 people being housed in a one million dollar renovated space.
Residents are hoping that the city invests in Wadsworth as a neighborhood community center. The city says for now, they will be keeping all city owned buildings as they are, just in case emergency shelter is needed again. No further information has been provided.
