City to again house migrants at Greektown hostel

Asylum-seekers will again be housed in a temporary shelter in Greektown, according to a local alderman.

Migrants will move into the Parthenon Guest House, 310 S. Halsted St., beginning Friday, Ald. Bill Conway (34th) announced Sunday.

Between 130 and 190 migrants are expected to stay at the shelter through the end of June next year, with a possible extension after that, Conway told the Sun-Times.

The hostel was previously used as a temporary migrant shelter from October 2022 to February, when it held 136 people, Conway said.

Conway and city officials will hold a community meeting on the plan at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at Merit School of Music, 38 S. Peoria St.

The first-term alderman expressed displeasure about the lack of advance notice from Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office.

“Though this is not my choice and I’m disappointed at the short notice of this plan, I understand our responsibility as a welcoming city to work together given the present situation,” Conway said in the statement.

Conway said he was first told about the plan to use the hostel again on Thursday night.

It’s unclear if the migrants will be transferred from police stations or other shelters.

“I’m still waiting on the mayor’s office for information,” Conway said in a phone call.

Elsewhere in the city, residents have resisted plans to open shelters to house some of the 13,500 migrants who have arrived in Chicago since August 2022.

Last week, Kenwood residents in a community meeting decried plans to turn the Lake Shore Hotel in the South Side neighborhood into a shelter for asylum-seekers.

Around 1,500 people are sleeping at police stations and airports, waiting for shelter space to open.

More than 6,500 migrants are spread among 16 shelters. Most recent migrants in Chicago are from Venezuela. Many were sent on buses to the city from Texas by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.

Also last week, Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Mayor Brandon Johnson and other Democratic leaders renewed their call for President Joe Biden to remedy one crisis — the labor shortage in the hospitality and other industries — by tapping potential from another: noncitizens, including the thousands of undocumented asylum-seekers arriving in Chicago by the busload almost daily from Texas.

Alongside business leaders from several sectors, including the restaurant and construction industries, Pritzker, Johnson and a handful of members of the Illinois congressional delegation — all Democrats — held a news conference urging Biden to streamline the process for new arrivals to obtain work permits.