Some Hyde Park residents voiced their displeasure over the location of a new migrant shelter during a community meeting Wednesday night, NBC Chicago’s Evrod Cassimy reports.
The moving of asylum-seeking migrants to the LakeShore Hotel in Hyde Park has left some residents angry, who voiced their displeasure in a community meeting on Wednesday.
“I am absolutely livid. Livid!” Hyde Park resident Doris Lewis yelled at the community meeting.
Many Hyde Park residents are upset to find out that approximately 300 migrants will be housed at the nearby LakeShore Hotel starting as early as next week.
Lewis lives just feet away, and voiced concerns about safety, equality and the economics of the move.
“I’ve prepared myself financially to live where I am living and to have the government come in and dump 300 people right next to me where I am paying a lot of money to live and they’re not paying one dime, it is not fair!” she explained.
“I don’t know from where they come," said Hyde Park resident Gail Baker. "I don’t know what the intentions are. I don’t know the time frame. I don’t know if this is temporary, if this is long-term.”
While the majority of those in attendance at Wednesday's meeting were opposed to the city's plans, Brigid Maniates supports the idea in spite of her neighbors concerns.
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“I think all of those things are just what happens naturally when you put hundreds of people together,” she explained. “We don’t need to take seats away from the table, we just need to make that table larger.”
In spite of the outcry from people in attendance, the city still plans to move the migrants here at the start of next month.
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