Evanston City Council members Monday night didn’t direct staff not to apply for a county grant to fund a migrant shelter here.
But — while expressing concern for the plight of the migrants — they couldn’t muster a majority to agree to support either of the proposed shelter sites.
And, at a session that lacked a quorum because there were only four alders in the room, plus one more online, it seemed Mayor Daniel Biss was more eager to move forward with the idea than anyone else present.
Here’s our scorecard on how the discussion went:
Member Seek grant? 1020 Church site? Civic Center site? Harris Not ready No No Nieuwsma ? No Maybe Burns Maybe ? No Revelle ? No No Geracaris Yes Yes ?
Council Members Krissie Harris (2nd) and Bobby Burns (5th) both expressed concerns about providing help to new arrivals, when long-term Evanston residents, especially minorities, are being forced from their homes by rising housing costs.
Find much more of what each council member said in our City Council recap.
When Biss speaks just remember he’s in bed with the machine that is Preckwinkle & co.
I don’t think he’s a bad man, in fact I think he’s a good man … but he’s a politician and will be a career politician at that. That’s the biggest threat to America right now, politicians.
So, let’s keep an eye on him and his policies.
Also – why does it have to be downtown? What happened to “Yes in my backyard” Mr. Biss? Still waiting for him to lead by example with that comment.
Why are we attempting to do something that has failed in every part of the country. We need to stop asking for more burden on us taxpayers. We have poverty and homelessness in our community that needs to be addressed. What is wrong with saying we can’t go anything? I want to know why people in Evanston feel they have special solutions to solve homelessness at any cost. We have no business getting involved in this migrant problem. The city of Chicago has caused harm to communities of color to foolishly compete to be the most accepting. Biss needs to present a successful business case for getting involved. “We should because it’s the right think to do” is not intelligent. It is pandering. It does work with many Evanstonians who don’t seem to read or travel much outside of Evanston. But it will not work for people like me. And there are more of us,
I think they should not have allowed that migrant family to speak at that meeting. This needs to stop. How many times have we heard these stories?
Evanston residents did not open the borders, did not bus people up here, and did not make it so difficult to obtain a work permit. We do not need the drain to our resources.
Priority should be helping long-term Evanston residents, especially minorities who are unable to afford high rental cost and/or high property taxes. Home ownership among blacks in Evanston is very low.
Hi Dena,
The county isn’t offering grant money for that purpose under this program.
Should Evanston refuse to take the county’s money for that reason?
— Bill
Just because the money is being offered doesn’t mean it is what we should be doing. Even if this proceeds , what happens when the money runs out? Should we layer on another tax while turning a deaf ear to our community issues?
Hi HNJ,
Shocking as it might seem, if the money runs out, there’s always the possibility of ceasing to provide the service.
But my comment addressed the issue of whether we should refuse to take money for purpose “A” that some people want because the same source is not offering money for purpose “B” that other people want.
That seems like a cut-off-your-nose-to-spite-your-face attitude to me.
— Bill
Evanston should only be asking for grant money when the purpose of the grant money is something that Evanston has experience with and can properly offer the services and truly help. Neither the City, nor Connections, nor Interfaith Action Council have any business getting involved in the complex issues regarding the country’s immigration crisis.
Regarding the woman who paraded and exploited the Venezuelan family in front of city Council, how dare she? I agree that this has to stop. Yet another telethon and virtue signaling charade.
Biss needs to listen to the experts that shelters are not solving the migrant crisis. And to whomever said that Evanston needs to step up, I think we have stepped up over and over countless times and have proven to be failures at helping with the issues we claim to be fixing, like homelessness.
I vacillate back and forth on this. On the one hand, the more we offer migrants in the way of housing, food, health care, education, the more migrants will come here. The border is pretty much fully open to anyone who says the word “asylum”. They are let in, and they won’t have a real hearing about whether that’s true for several years. Clearly we’re not prepared to help all of these people get settled. But should we help those we can? That’s the real issue. Does it encourage more to come? Is that a good thing or a bad thing? This is a very complicate issue, especially for those whose first instinct is always to help those in need.
Our immigration policy broken!!! Unfortunately, cannot help everyone, so must prioritize those who live in Evanston first. The lines of migrants in front of Trader Joe and Jewel in South Evanston is like walking the gauntlet. I would love to buy some food for people, but when so many, who you choose? So give nothing. Many of my neighbors feel the same.