Residents Protest Plan to House 300 Migrants at Hyde Park Area Motel

Fired-up residents raised their voices Wednesday night at a contentious meeting with city leaders in Hyde Park.

The city wants to house hundreds of asylum seekers at a motel in the area – but many residents who packed the meeting Wednesday night said, “No way.”

The city said two more busloads of migrants arrived Wednesday. That is one reason the city needs shelters where 250 or more migrants can go at once.

How the community learned about the city’s decision left a bad taste for many.

In less than a week, the Chicago Lake Shore Hotel, at 4900B S. DuSable Lake Shore Dr., will soon house 300 migrants. Those living in Hyde Park, like Emmanuel Jackson, cannot understand why.

“I think it’s a basic issue of notification and respect,” Jackson said. “If these types of wide changes are being made in the community in which we live, we should know about them.”

That was why hundreds packed a community meeting on Wednesday night at The Promontory, 5311 S. Lake Park Ave. West.

“I was absolutely livid, and you guys are so hypocritical,” one woman said.

{snip}

“How do we know that these are not criminals coming into our community?” a woman said at the meeting.

The city says currently, 6,500 migrants are staying at the 16 city-run shelters. The goal is to get the migrants out of the police stations with overflowing lobbies.

But those in the crowd Wednesday evening questioned why their Hyde Park community was chosen.

“You’ve got 73 percent of the people homeless in this city are Black people,” a woman said. “What have you done for them?”

{snip}