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Seven months after Aldo. Devon Reed’s $1.75 million plan to address homeless encampments has been approved by the Human Services Committee and is scheduled for final action before the City Council on Monday night.
Committee members gave mixed reviews last August about a proposal to donate $1.25 million to Connections for the Homeless, $200,000 to School District 65 and $300,000 to the city Department of Health and Human Services for homelessness prevention efforts. expressed doubts.
Mr. Reed sought to fund the program from the city’s dwindling general fund reserves.
It’s now a new budget year, but nothing has changed about the proposal.
Health and Human Services Director Ike Ogbo said in an updated memo that staff from the city’s outreach team are currently visiting the Howard Street CTA overpass site daily.
Last summer, the largest encampment appeared there.
Ogbo said outreach workers have discovered that the people who hang out there are “choosing to spend time in the space rather than living in it.”
The aid team “not only found evidence of illicit drug use in the space, but many people perceived it as a place to ‘hang out,'” he says.
“Microwaves, coffee pots, and other items are plugged into the CTA grounds, making the space even more comfortable for additional visitors who wish to stay longer.”
Ogbo said the people who hang out there “play music, eat food, and enjoy each other’s company” in a conveniently sheltered space “from the rain and cold winds.”
But as the weather continues to warm, Ogbo City’s so-called “intermittent encampments” may be on the verge of being recreated.
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