Encampments allowed at Chicago parks, as electrical access provided to those living at Eugene Field

by BRIAN NADIG

Alderman Samantha Nugent (39th) is questioning the decision to keep allowing tent encampments at Legion and Eugene Field Annex parks, where the latter park has electrical outlets for the those living there.

“Where are you getting the authority to do this,” Nugent said at the Oct. 8 meeting of the Chicago Park District Board of Commissioners. “Where is this in the municipal code” to allow continuous overnight camping?

Nugent said that she attended a recent youth cross country meet at Legion, 3103 W. Peterson Ave., and that there is a “full scale” tent encampment there, with issues of rats, drug activity and other problems there. “The stench was horrific,” she said. “I’m … concerned about the public health implications of this situation.”

Earlier this year the park district had tents removed from along the park’s river embankment after a series of fires but is permitting tents to remain in other areas of the park, where many homes along Jersey Avenue back up to the park, with no alley separating the backyard from the park.

One resident told the park district board that drug use, stabbings and sexual assaults have become a problem in the park. “I’m afraid for my life” and for others, the resident said.

A housing advocate urged caution, calling for the park district not to criminalize homelessnesses. “We can’t police our way out of this crisis.”

A resident also reported that at Eugene Field Annex, 5151 N. Pulaski Road, the park district set up electrical outlets by a light pole that allow those living in the tent encampment there to charge their cell phones. Extension cords can be seen running throughout much of the encampment, creating safety concerns, the resident said.

“People need cell phones to be able to (communicate) with their social worker,” park district general superintendent Carlos Ramirez-Rosa said at the board’s Sept. 10 meeting. An electrician was used to set up the outlets after a homelessness advocacy group made the request, he said.

The annex is a section of Eugene Field Park that is across from Gompers Park, 4222 W. Foster Ave. Several months ago the park district had allowed those living in Gompers to move to the annex due to planned construction at Gompers and the start of a youth baseball league.

Ramirez-Rosa said that the district takes a “housing first” approach to dealing with as many as 60 tent encampments in city parks. He said that the district works with a variety of agencies to provide social services and to help find housing for encampment residents but “ultimately … a lack housing” complicates the matter.

Housing advocates have said that those living in Northwest Side parks often do not want to relocate to a shelter or more permanent housing in other parts of the city because it would be too far from their friends, family or workplace.

“The 39th Ward has zip” housing opportunities for the unhoused, a resident testified at a park board hearing.

Encampments in the parks are only forced to close or relocate if they block park programming or planned construction, or if there is a safety or health risk to the encampment residents, Ramirez-Rosa said. At Legion, the difficulty of fighting tent fires along the river embankment led to decision to require the tents to relocate to elsewhere in the park, he said.

Prior notification is provided to encampment residents before tents are forcibly removed, Ramirez-Rosa said. He added that more permanent living structures, such as a reported two-story one at Legion, are tagged for removal.

Some housing advocates have called for the park district to halt planned sweeps where tents are removed.

A park board commissioner recently recommended that the park district allocate more funds to address homelessness issues at the parks if the district plans to continue its policy of allowing the encampments.

Ramirez-Rosa said that said that the district already does a lot to help the encampment residents and that checks of these areas, including the removal of garbage, are conducted on a regular basis to help maintain better conditions.

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