Like most big American cities, Chicago has a homelessness problem. It is writ large in our public parks.
Take the situation in the 39th Ward, where Ald. Samantha Nugent has grown so frustrated with burgeoning tent cities that she marched into our office with a multicolored timeline going back to 2022, reflecting her efforts to restore her constituents’ access to the grass and get a youth baseball program that plays in Gompers Park back onto the diamonds to play ball.
Nugent, who was animated on this topic, noted a variety of problems in such parks as Gompers, Eugene Field and Legion, including drunkenness, drug use, car break-ins, the brandishment of weapons and public sex. She wondered aloud why the Park District isn’t consistently enforcing its own rules, which include prohibiting alcohol consumption, open fires and erecting tents without a permit.
Moreover, Nugent suggested that the political demographics of her ward, which voted overwhelmingly for former mayoral candidate Paul Vallas and against Mayor Brandon Johnson, has meant that whereas other tent encampments, such as the one in Humboldt Park, have been cleared, her ward has been left housing more than its share of unhoused folks from all over the city. Notably, the 26th Ward — which includes Humboldt Park — voted overwhelmingly for Johnson in 2023. “Activists and activism trump the needs of the community,” Nugent said.
Tents in the ward began cropping up in 2022, followed shortly by fires breaking out — one of which sent embers into residents’ yards. Over time, Nugent said, problems escalated despite multiple accelerated moving events (AMEs) over the past several years, programs that bring together housing, mental health and other services to help unhoused people get back on their feet. Nugent told us she supports such interventions but that unless AMEs are done in tandem with completely shutting down encampments in a park, in her experience, many folks won’t accept housing. The result is churn, not stability.
Reporting suggests she is correct.
“We’re just gonna move to the next park. It’s just going to keep happening again and again unless they start thinking outside the box and giving us actual resources instead of just moving us,” a resident of a Legion Park camp that was cleared Tuesday told Block Club.
This week, officials dismantled a homeless encampment in Legion Park, but the problem isn’t over — it’s likely just moving to a different area of the park. “Telling people to move their belongings from park to park just kicks the can down the road,” Nugent told us. She also said that the problem creates a sense among many Chicagoans that the parks have no rules. Many of her constituents wonder why the Park District isn’t consistently enforcing its own rules, which include closing at a certain hour, prohibiting alcohol consumption, open fires and erecting tents without a permit.
Of course, everyone knows the city can deal with the problem effectively when there is political will.
Ahead of the 2024 Democratic National Convention last year, city officials cleared a prominent homeless encampment near the Dan Ryan Expressway. While they denied the clearing was directly related to the DNC, the timing would suggest otherwise — and proved that officials know how to clear out encampments and get people into housing if the political will is there.
At the same time, we recognize the extremely complex and challenging nature of this problem. A Park District spokesperson told us they’re making progress, including in Nugent’s ward. For example, they’re holding monthly coordinated cleanings with the Department of Family and Support Services at Gompers and Eugene Field, as well as daily debris removal and garbage service at encampment sites. They’ve cleared multiple encampments. And they say that aldermen who are in favor with the administration are not being targeted.
We acknowledge that is not an easy problem to solve. The availability of shelter beds does not mean that homeless folks want to go there. The Park District, which is now run by former 35th Ward Ald. Carlos Ramírez-Rosa, has to figure out how to align its rules with the administration’s policy against homelessness. And both the city and the Park District have to navigate their delicate relationships with the organizations that advocate forcefully for the unhoused and generally oppose any kind of involuntary clearing or removal and that also provide services that those in these tent cities clearly need.
Still Nugent’s ward, and all of the people of Chicago, deserve far more clarity on this issue.
That means transparent policies, definitions and guidelines on park rules and public safety and no city targeting of politically unpopular wards. If the Park District does not wish to enforce its published regulations, it should remove them for everyone.
The city should commit to a consistent timeline for accelerated moving events paired with permanent housing solutions, rather than indefinite camping permissions. And for their part, the organizations that work so hard for the homeless also have to appreciate the interests of a local community that wants its park back. Chicagoans should not have to wonder whether their neighborhood park is safe or whether their kids can play ball. Safe parks and humane treatment of the unhoused are not mutually exclusive.
Still, the bottom line here is that parks are not the place for tent cities, anymore than police stations were suitable for migrant housing. Shifting the tents from one park to another, or from one corner of a park to another corner, doesn’t solve anything. The goal here has to be to stop these mass takeovers and restore the parks to their intended purpose.
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.