News/Commentary

Chicago coverup: Migrant shelters a way to shovel tons of taxpayer money into private pockets

March 27, 2024 | | Print Article

Concern is brewing over the lack of transparency by Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson as it pertains to his housing of criminal aliens.

While it’s true the city has set up a website ostensibly tracking how $300 million has been spent on the criminal alien crisis, the website is still missing oodles of data, including “how migrant shelter sites are selected and how much building owners are profiting off the migrant crisis,” according to local station WMAQ.

“I think it’s a bit more translucent than transparent,” 40th Ward Ald. Andre Vasquez told the station. “You get some information but not the full picture.”

What’s known is that Chicago has mainly outsourced its operation, with, as an example, the Kansas-based company Favorite Healthcare Staffing receiving $206 million to staff Chicago’s so-called migrant shelters.

“Another $45 million was paid to Louisville, Kentucky-based Equitable Social Solutions, which the city says helps identify and facilitate which shelters are selected through the help of another company, Chicago-based Reloshare,” WMAQ notes.

The rest of the information gleaned by WMAQ had to be learned through the filing of Freedom of Information Act requests.

Through filing these requests, the station learned, for instance, that the city’s largest shelter in Pilsen houses roughly 2,300 migrants for $38,000 a night, $280,000 a week, or $2.5 million for three months.

Meanwhile, another shelter in Ogden reportedly cost taxpayers $1.8 million during a three-month period last fall.

“And at the Inn of Chicago, which at one time provided 1,500 beds, the cost was $344,626 per week. The bed rate for one year at the former hotel would generate $17 million,” WMAQ notes.

By filing FOIA requests, WMAQ also obtained copies of the lease agreements for nine of the city’s 27 shelters.

“Those missing included the lease agreements for the city’s largest and most expensive shelters, including the Halsted shelter and the one located at the Inn of Chicago,” according to the station.

“You should not have to go through the hoops that you’ve gone through just to get through, get to partial information,” former Chicago inspector general Joe Ferguson told the station. “We absolutely should know at every step of the way, where the public’s money is going to so that we can make an assessment as to whether or not it is being used well.”

What’ weird is that the city has reportedly rejected at least one offer for access to a “vacant building” owned by local Randy Shifrin.

“Shifrin said the city considered it but abruptly canceled while en route to look at the property,” according to WMAQ.

“They made a date to come view the building, and at the very last date they were called back. They were told do not do it. They just canceled last second,” Shifrin said.

All this comes a few weeks after a report from the Chicago Sun-Times claimed that Mayor Johnson had also rejected free potential shelters offered up by the Archdiocese of Chicago.

“The Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago has space in more than 60 shuttered churches, schools and other buildings listed for sale or for lease,” the paper reported. “The church also has other unused spaces from waves of closures in recent years. Church officials offered up more than dozen of these locations to the city.”

In explaining the rejection, Johnson reportedly said “it’s not just as simple as ‘here’s a building; take it” and that “there’s work that has to be done to make it suitable.”

When asked by WMAQ whether he’d support additional spending documents being uploaded to the city’s website, Johnson reportedly deflected to Brandi Knazze, the commissioner for the Department of Family and Support Services.

When then asked whether he’d support more transparency, he replied with a BS answer.

“Thank you for that question. Again, we are meeting you right where you are,” he said.

Vivek Saxena
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