Chicago is shutting down its migrant-only shelter system and merging it with the city’s traditional homeless shelter system.
The Windy City is also closing its “landing zone” for migrants where newly arrived migrants get shelter placements and other resources. The landing zone will close at the end of 2024 and is now only open from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m., as opposed to also being open overnight.
The moves come as the number of migrants arriving in the Windy City continues to drop. At its peak in late-December, the city was housing about 14,900 migrants, but that has fallen to around 5,000, per reports.
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Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is shutting down its migrant-only shelter system and merging it with the city’s traditional homeless shelter system. (Vincent Alban/Getty Images)
The overhaul will see 3,800 beds added to the city’s current homeless services system of 3,000 legacy beds in a new strategy being labeled as the One System Initiative (OSI). The new strategy aims to streamline operations and reduce the high cost of operating the migrant shelters, which have stretched the city’s budget.
“We are shifting to a more cost-effective, equitable, and strategic approach that addresses homelessness for all who need support in the City of Chicago,” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said Monday in a press release announcing the plan. “This transition is in line with the sharp decline in migration to Chicago and our current budget realities.”
The press release states that the OSI is a “unified sheltering system to serve all Chicagoans” which will take effect by the new year.
Johnson took a swipe at Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who began busing thousands of migrants to the Windy City in 2022 because of its sanctuary city status as Texas struggled to cater to an unprecedented surge of migrants arriving in the Lone Star state under the Biden-Harris administration.
“We fought back and showed the world just how welcoming we can be,” Johnson said at a press briefing, per WTTW.
‘DANGEROUS’ MIGRANT IS PERSON OF INTEREST IN SHOOTING DEATH OF 17-YEAR-OLD CHICAGO GIRL
People walk outside a migrant shelter on the Lower West Side in Chicago on March 11. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
“The efforts at the Texas border by Republican Governor Greg Abbott were meant to destabilize welcoming cities like Chicago, but the city responded with community care in welcoming nearly 50,000 new arrivals,” the press release states. “The Johnson Administration is proud of the City agencies, community partners and government entities who successfully responded to an unprecedented humanitarian crisis.”
Chicago has received more than 50,000 migrants throughout the current crisis, many of them families, according to CBS.
With the city still housing nearly 5,000 people in its migrant shelters, concerns are being raised that there will not be enough beds for migrants once the new system is in place and the sharp Chicago winter bites. But migrants who get into a homeless shelter will no longer face evictions.
Johnson had attempted to raise $100 million by hiking taxes on properties worth more than $1 million in his “Bring Chicago Home” ballot measure, which ultimately failed.
More than 1,000 immigrants crossed the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, Texas, last year. Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott bused thousands of migrants to Chicago to deal with the crisis. (John Moore/Getty Images)
The crisis has so far cost Chicago taxpayers nearly $200 million since it began and the city is facing a $982.4 million shortfall in 2025, according to WTTW.
“Instead, we can only encumber what our budget allows,” Johnson said, per WTTV. “But imagine the increase in our capacity if ‘Bring Chicago Home’ had passed.”
“Could this lead to people on the street? Look, I’ll be remiss if I did not acknowledge the financial straits that we are experiencing right now and the impact that that’s going to have on this mission,” Johnson said.
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MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee Recreation held its Partnership for the Arts and Humanities Showcase Friday at North Division High School, bringing together students and community organizations to celebrate arts education in Milwaukee.
The event featured performances, visual art, and cultural programming from a range of partner organizations that work with Milwaukee students before and after school, on weekends, and during the summer.
Ariana Holmes, a recreation supervisor with Milwaukee Recreation, said the showcase highlights the breadth of arts and humanities programming available to young people across the city.
Watch: Milwaukee Recreation hosts youth arts and humanities showcase
Youth Arts and Humanities showcase underway
“This is one of our programs out of many, many at Milwaukee Recreation, but it centers a celebration of arts and humanities in our before and after school programming,” Holmes said. “All of the partners that you see here today, they run programs with Milwaukee students after school, on the weekends, during the summer, making sure that every kid in Milwaukee has access to really wonderful arts and humanities education.”
Organizations represented at the event included Bembe Drum and Dance, Woodland Pattern, All Hands Boat Works, and Running Rebels, among others.
“We have such a wonderful range that really celebrates the diversity that is the arts and humanities,” Holmes said. “We have Bembe Drum and Dance, they’re drumming for us and dancing on stage right now. We have Woodland Pattern, who does poetry with young people in Milwaukee. We have organizations that help build boats with young people, All Hands Boat Works, really just an incredible range.”
Students can sign up for the programs through Milwaukee Recreation, which connects them with partner organizations that run programming both in schools and at their own locations. Holmes said an arts internship for high schoolers is planned for the summer.
“This summer, we’ll be doing an arts internship for older kids, high schoolers to be engaged in arts, so it really is just like a really wonderful diversity of experiences,” Holmes said.
Information about Milwaukee Recreation programs is available through the organization’s printed guides, which are mailed to Milwaukee residents. Residents are encouraged to pick up the guides and explore opportunities for their children to get involved.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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Quincy Street isn’t just at the center of Art-A-Whirl, it’s at the heart of the Arts District in northeast Minneapolis. The road itself, however, is falling apart. And the only thing bumpier than the exposed brick is the reaction to the city’s plans to fix it.
“It’s known as like the most quirky, cobblestoney, potholey street,” said Kristin Olson, owner of Studio Q.
She and others working along the street have come to appreciate its crumbling characteristics. It forces cars to drive slowly, which is helpful given the amount of foot traffic in the area.
It’s also the very reason city leaders want to remake it.
Recent project renderings include adding sidewalks and trails to improve accessibility. Putting in a new road will help fix drainage issues. The city even wants to use bricks instead of asphalt to retain the area’s image.
“Totally hear that and understand it and we also want that, but the rest of the street is working as is,” said Olson.
Her studio has three private parking spots that her clients rely on.
The road project would convert private parking along Quincy Street into public parking, a major sticking point for artists needing direct access to their vehicles outside their studios.
“We save those for people who have mobility needs or people who are bringing in a lot of equipment,” said Olson.
Many of her clients have multiple vehicles for photoshoots at her studio.
“If we as a studio don’t have access to these three spots for our teams, those clients are going somewhere else,” she said.
The fight to keep Quincy Street’s character has been going on for a few years, with the pushback ramping up as the 2027 construction date nears. The latest renderings include loading zones for the businesses along the street, but artists like Charlie Haumersen don’t feel it’s enough.
“Just having access to the building is really important,” Haumerson said.
He, and many of the tenants on the block, also worry the city’s desire for change will have ramifications beyond just the road.
“We think of it as sort of a form of cultural erasure. Even though we’re just building a street, it might pave the way artists to have to leave,” he said.
Olson is hopeful that the city will slow down its plans and continue to come up with solutions that find a middle ground with the neighbors. It’s unclear if the city plans to make further changes to its latest redesign.
Tonight, on Beyond the Bricks with Jake Query and Mike Thomsen, they look back at the 1972 Indy 500, featuring record speeds and Jim Malloy.
In the second segment, they continue to look back at the 1972 Indy 500 with the Mystery Eagle and the misfortunes of Wally Dallenbach.
Then to wrap up another edition of the show, they continue to look back at the 1972 Indy 500 with Mark Donohue taking the win.
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