You think that's bad
you should see conditions outside the shelter!
Posted on 01/31/2024 9:18:44 PM PST by grundle
Mayor Brandon Johnson and his administration received complaints about unsanitary and unsafe conditions at a Pilsen migrant shelter as early as late October, more than a month before the death of a 5-year-old boy focused attention on the state of the facility, emails recently obtained by WTTW News show.
On Dec. 17, 2023, Jean Carlos Martinez Rivero died at Comer Children’s Hospital after falling ill at a migrant shelter in the 2200 block of South Halsted Avenue. Then on Dec. 19, several other individuals were taken to the hospital from that shelter with respiratory illnesses, according to the mayor’s office.
The boy’s death and the later illnesses quickly drew attention to the crowded shelter, which was also the subject of a report by Borderless Magazine on Dec. 14. A cause of death for Martinez Rivero has not yet been released by the Cook County medical examiner’s office and there has been no determination made that his death and the other illnesses at the shelter were tied to unsanitary conditions.
However, emails exclusively obtained by WTTW News shine new light on the timeline of when Johnson and his administration were made aware of conditions at the shelter and what exactly those conditions were. The emails also raise questions about how the administration has monitored conditions at migrant shelters and the city’s oversight of outside vendor Favorite Staffing, which manages day-to-day operations at migrant shelters.
On Oct. 27, Johnson and several top staffers, including Department of Family and Support Services Commissioner Brandie Knazze, were warned by email of alleged unsafe conditions at the shelter.
Around that time, a concerned community volunteer reached out to the office of Ald. Nicole Lee (11th Ward). Lee then promptly sent an email to the mayor relaying those concerns.
WTTW News filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the city for a copy of that Oct. 27 email and received a heavily redacted document in response: “Good Evening Mayor Johnson, Commissioner Knazze, Deputy Mayor Ponce De Leon, and Deputy Chief of staff Cristina (Pacione Zayas),” the email reads.
The next six paragraphs of the message were entirely redacted in the city’s records response to WTTW News.
But a nonprofit government accountability organization called the FOIA Bakery shared with WTTW News an unredacted version they say they obtained.
The redacted parts allege the shelter had insufficient bathrooms, exposed pipes with raw sewage, cockroach infestation, a possible outbreak of illness with many people being sick, insufficient provision of meals and water and poor and disrespectful treatment of migrants housed in the shelter by staff, according the email.
A source with access to the shelter sent images to WTTW News that they say show migrants sleeping next to sewer covers inside the shelter.
A follow-up email obtained from the FOIA Bakery appears to show Knazze asked staffers to find out about these complaints.
WTTW News also filed a FOIA request for Knazze’s response to Lee’s concerns, which was sent on Oct. 29. Once again, the document was nearly completely redacted. The city’s FOIA officer cited exemptions under the law that allow them to withhold “Pre decisional, deliberative information.”
Annie Gomberg, a lead organizer with the Police Station Response Team, says organizers have been warning administration officials about conditions and a lack of medical care at the shelter since it opened Oct. 2.
“I’ve told them time and again that medical care is not easy to come by, that when it is requested, they are told they are on their own or it’s not available to them,” Gomberg said.
WTTW News asked the Johnson administration if the mayor saw the Oct. 27 email and whether the issues outlined at the shelter were addressed, but received no response.
In a statement, Lee said she is focused on the living conditions of migrants.
“As I have expressed in multiple engagements with the Mayor’s office, I remain concerned about the living conditions within the shelter at 22nd and Halsted. I join my colleagues in the City Council in urging the City to do more to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our new arrivals,” the statement reads. “Transparency around the conditions at these shelters is crucial, and we will continue to push for information and accountability in order to ensure individuals under our care are treated with the humanity that everyone deserves.”
In response to questions from about the site’s conditions, Favorite Staffing Vice President Keenan Driver responded with a statement.
“Favorite Staffing takes all staff complaints very seriously because we are concerned not only about the migrants, but about the safety and well-being of our own staff,” it reads.
During a Dec. 20 interview on WTTW News’ “Chicago Tonight: Black Voices” the mayor repeatedly was asked if the conditions at the Halsted shelter were safe.
“Everything I’ve done is to ensure the safety of all of the migrants arriving here,” Johnson said. “The concerns people expressed; these aren't new concerns. Remember, there were 4,000 people living in police districts. There were ambulatory runs there.”
Gomberg says she doesn't believe the city is justified in keeping the information in those emails redacted.
“If it has to do with conditions and they don’t want that information public, I would think it’s going to prevent anything from getting better,” Gomberg said.
The shelter is now home to 2,547 people, according to the latest city data Wednesday. Facility issues continue to persist, according to people who have recently visited the shelter.
Maybe these migrants are finding America was not the shining land they thought
the question is..what will they do next.
You think that's bad
you should see conditions outside the shelter!
I recently read a interview with an illegal alien from an African country. He had spent his life savings, $9,000 to get here. He now realizes the USA is not like what he saw on TV and in movies. Everybody doesn't magically have a nice house and car. Now he just wants to go home as he was better off there, but he can't afford it.
I was wondering if sitcoms and movies were one of the reasons a lot of people become illegal aliens.
In most of the movies and TV shows, almost everybody is magically at least upper middle class or higher, no matter how stupid they are.
Everybody living in a nice house or apartment, driving a new car or SUV.
Someone on the outside, looking in would figure that is just the way it is in the USA for everybody and do anything possible to get here.
We need to interview him and others like him from the various countries the are coming from and get those interviews on TV there.
With this mass migration i believe a large portion see a country ready to fall, after all, they seen in their countries and other close by. I think most are here to loot the place and they have already started..
With this mass migration i believe a large portion see a country ready to fall, after all, they seen in their countries and other close by. I think most are here to loot the place and they have already started..
Traitor Xoe has encouraged (not merely “aided and abetted”) an INVASION by a horde of military aged males.
Expect to see a red flag hoisted within the next four years...
....UNLESS!
that’s what I’m afraid. There is almost certainly a large 5th column in the US already just waiting for activation.
Yea, verily.
But we are better armed.
are we? The US Generals have abandoned the regular arsenal in favor of over complex electronics, which are subject to chaos theory(the more complex a system the more prone to error.)
https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2022/05/10/the-littoral-combat-ships-latest-problem-class-wide-structural-defects-leading-to-hull-cracks/
https://www.businessinsider.com/us-navy-lcs-warship-just-decommissioned-after-short-service-life-2023-8?op=1
and that’s just a few wait real battle starts.
Ubder biden Blue Plantation Sanctuary Cities are becoming migrant death camps.
US taxpayers will shell out millions for this, on top of the trillions the illegals already cost us.
Compared to where they came from, probably an upgrade.
Don’t care.
Won’t care.
Chicago voted for this. Now they’re getting it.
Good and hard.
L
“...Sewage, Roaches and Illnesses...”
You see that in every Rat urban city all across America even without migrants. Nothings changed. It’s like this where ever their are democrats. /spit
Damn shame we have to have something like this as a problem because our government has made it a problem.
There is no way to provide for these people and they knew it before openiing those borders.
The whole US government under Joe Biden is to blame and Congress is to blame for devising laws that have allowed this to happen.
In other words, the shelter in Chicago was just as bad or worse than the conditions those people came from when they crossed our border illegally.
My give-a-darn machine is out for repairs, but the boo-hoo machine is working just fine. Cue the Korean crying girl.
Import third world, become third world.
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