Porfirio Elliott, 49, holds his partner Melissa in Humboldt Park, the site of Chicago’s largest tent city, where they have lived for six months. Officials plan to clear the encampment on Friday. | Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times
Article Excerpt:
Patricia Nix-Hodes, who heads the law project of the Chicago Coalition to End Homelessness, said there is an issue more basic than who gets offered an apartment.
“Every day, people lose their housing and become homeless and need a place to stay,” Nix-Hodes said. “And we know that there’s not sufficient affordable housing in the city, there’s not sufficient shelter in the city. So, to close down a public space that people have relied on when we don’t have sufficient shelter and housing in the city, that’s where the problem is.”
In a press release Tuesday, the coalition and other homeless advocacy groups lauded Fuentes and Mayor Johnson for coming up with the 63 units but called on them to “halt plans to clear [the] park and deny space to future people in need.”
Chicago Coalition for the Homeless is now Chicago Coalition to end Homelessness (CCH).