Ald. Nugent: city hasn’t agreed to ‘accelerated moving event’ for homeless camp at Gompers Park 

by BRIAN NADIG

Alderman Samantha Nugent (39th) has called for an “accelerated moving event” to help find housing for the homeless living at Gompers Park, 4222 W. Foster Ave., but she says Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration has not agreed to do so.

Mayfair area residents have raised concerns about crime, drug use and erratic behavior from those living at the park. There are reports of people using a lagoon at the park as a washroom, and last month a woman reported being robbed at gunpoint while walking a dog at the the south end of the park, an area known as “Little Gompers.”

Speaking at the Sept. 18 meeting of the North Mayfair Improvement Association, Nugent said the city has sent out care teams to the park’s encampment of reportedly 27 tents, but it won’t commit to an organized, stepped-up effort to help relocate those living at the park to more permanent type of housing. The mayor’s office has indicated that it doesn’t force the unhoused from parks, she said, adding that the ward office receives inquiries as to why the park’s 11 p.m. closing time and other rules are not being enforced for those living there.

Nugent said that she has asked the mayor’s office to put its policy “in writing” but that has not happened.

“We need to know what the policy is,” Nugent told residents. “What are the marching orders?”

“I’ve met with all these departments, and they don’t answer me,” Nugent said. “It’s really frustrating.”

Nugent said that “accelerated” relocating events have worked well in the past. “We’ve seen it work. … I have begged and implored the city to give us (one).”

A relocation program is in progress at Humboldt Park, and a resident asked Nugent why the city is conducting one there but not at Gompers.

Nugent said that she doesn’t have an answer but noted that the alderperson of Humboldt Park “votes with the mayor more than I do.”

Nugent is urging residents to outline their concerns in letters and emails to the mayor and to attend a 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 30, community meeting on Gompers that she is holding at the Salvation Army Mayfair Community Church, 5020 N. Pulaski Road. Chicago Chief Homelessness Officer Sendy Soto and representatives from several city agencies and the Chicago Park District are scheduled to attend the meeting. 

To register for the meeting, contact the ward office at ward39@cityofchicago.org.

A park district representative said at the meeting that those living at the park are not recent migrants.

In response to crime and other concerns, the recently formed Restore Gompers Park Coalition is seeking to have a homeless encampment removed at the Northwest Side park and those living there to receive relocation assistance.

On Sept. 10 the coalition submitted m a petition with more than 450 signatures from Mayfair area residents to city and park officials.

“The petition calls upon Mayor Brandon Johnson, Chief Homelessness Officer Sendy Soto and other elected officials to remove those currently camping in Gompers Park, enforce regulations against setting up camp in public parks, increase patrols for safety reasons, provide necessary assistance for those displaced from their campsites and restore cleanliness, safety and accessibility for all residents who wish to use the park,” the coalition said. 

In addition, during a cleanup event at the park last month, multiple knives were found, and in July a resident of the encampment was seen wearing no clothes while in the lagoon, according to the coalition.

At the association meeting, a resident said, “They want to get high and do drugs,” he said. “I’m paying taxes and (should be able) to take my grandkids over there.”

A woman said that she finds “needles, condoms” at the park and that while homelessness at Gompers is not new, the inappropriate behavior has become more “brazen.”

Another resident said that the homeless at Gompers consider this community as their home, where their friends are, and that relocating them can be risky, especially if they are sent to a shelter instead of more permanent housing. He added that if they leave the park, outreach workers may lose track of them, and they may no longer receive the medical or social services they’re currently getting.

Also at the meeting, state Representative Mike Kelly (D-15) said that he plans to explore ways to help address issues at the park, including talking to state Representative Lindsey LaPointe (D-19), a former social worker who has brought housing and other homeless resources to other communities.

Kelly noted that a new proposed bill in the state legislature calls for “the opposite” of what the Gompers coalition wants, as the legislation would prohibit the removal of the homeless from parks.

About 70 people attended the meeting, which was held at the Gompers Park fieldhouse.

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