Chicago’s Mayor Brandon Johnson plans to relocate the city’s nearly 1,600 asylum-seeking migrants currently living in police stations to winterized camps with big tents before winter.
In an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, Johnson said the relocations will happen ‘before the weather begins to shift and change.’
Each of the massive tents will be able to hold up to 1,000 migrants, the mayor said, and under his plan the camps will provide meals as well as recreational and educational programming.
Currently 16 shelters in the city house 13,500 migrants, and more arrive every day.
The newspaper reported that the cost to shelter the 13,500 migrants costs the city about $30 million per month.
Johnson and his administration are working with the State of Illinois and Cook County to establish more shelters to take some of the pressure off Chicago, the mayor said.
‘These families are coming to the city of Chicago…If we do not create an infrastructure where we’re able to support and, quite frankly, contain these individuals who have experienced a great deal of harm, individuals who are desperate…that type of desperation will lead to chaos,’ Johnson said.
Johnson’s office did not immediately respond to inquiries from Fox News Digital on the matter.
Chicago and other cities have struggled to house and provide services amid an influx of migrants bussed from Texas, an initiative by Gov. Greg Abbott to push back on federal immigration policies.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.