Democratic-led States Still Grapple With Housing Migrants

CHICAGO — The migrant crisis in major Democratic-led cities has eased in the year since it was a full-blown emergency. But the problem hasn’t gone away.

More than a year ago, a surge of border crossings — coupled with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott busing people to blue cities — led to a massive influx of asylum seekers into Chicago, New York, Boston and elsewhere. They slept in police stations and hospitals. New York’s mayor proposed housing migrants on a barge. Democratic leaders even publicly blamed President Joe Biden for not doing enough.

As the incoming Trump administration vows to deport immigrants who are in the country illegally — and even those with temporary protected status — Democratic-led cities are still grappling with how to house asylum seekers but are also asking what to do if Donald Trump chooses to deport them.

The incoming border czar, Tom Homan, was in Chicago recently railing against local leaders who have vowed not to cooperate with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to deport migrants, increasing worries among immigration advocates and Democrats.

“What we're trying to figure out is how much of it will be bluster, and how much of it will be real,” said Democratic Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, whose congressional district includes Chicago.

Officials in some of these cities have gained a measure of control over the crisis, in part by finding alternative housing for thousands of migrants. At the same time, the number of people crossing into the United States at the southern border plummeted.

But the dilemma is far from solved. In Massachusetts, costs for the state’s emergency shelter program came in slightly lower than the nearly $1 billion officials predicted — but those costs are still double what the state historically budgets for the still overwhelmed system. In New York, Mayor Eric Adams announced plans to shutter a shelter that can house up to 2,000 people on a former airfield in Brooklyn — just one of about 25 facilities the city shut down or in the process of closing.

And Chicago shut down a landing zone where new arrivals received guidance on shelters, food and legal assistance while at the same time merging migrant and homeless shelters into one new system that some say can’t accommodate both communities.

“We're dealing with a crisis that is about to get even worse once the shelters for migrants close,” said Antonio Gutierrez, a community organizer with Organized Communities Against Deportations in Chicago.

Even before Trump takes office, officials in some states are limiting housing options for asylum seekers. Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey late last month announced new restrictions on the state's still overwhelmed emergency shelter system, tightening eligibility criteria for families seeking temporary shelter and announcing plans to lobby the Legislature to approve a new six-month limit on stays.

It’s the latest round of tweaks to the state’s shelter guidelines since Healey first capped the state’s emergency shelter system at 7,500 families last year.

Since then, her administration has gradually constricted services to counter ballooning costs. Over the summer, she banned families from sleeping on the floor at Boston’s Logan Airport and dispatched deputies to the southern border to dissuade new arrivals to the country from trying to make Massachusetts home.

The belt-tightening seems to be having the desired effect: Bi-weekly reports from the state’s Office of Housing and Livable Communities show the cost for the system this fiscal year is expected to come in under initial projections.

But advocates warn the pending six-month limit and new eligibility criteria won’t give families in the shelter system — which includes more than 3,000 families who entered as migrants, asylum seekers or refugees — enough time to find stable housing given the state’s housing crunch.

“We're concerned that it's just not realistic to expect a majority of families to be able to secure alternative housing or permanent housing in that time frame,” Kelly Turley, the associate director of the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless, told POLITICO.

Chicago, which just wrapped up a bruising budget session, has pulled back on rental assistance, too.

In Chicago, some of the recently arrived migrants have received rental assistance through state and municipal programs that offer security deposits or a few months of paid rent. Some recipients have fallen behind, often because they haven’t been able to secure work because they don’t have a work permit or because of language barriers, said Gutierrez.

Compounding the problem, there are still new arrivals who are struggling to find housing just as the city consolidated migrant and homeless shelters into one new system.

“Those are just some of the realities of what we’re seeing day to day,” he said.