In a 5-2 vote Thursday night, Oak Park’s Village Board of Trustees approved an additional $100,000 to be allocated to Community of Congregations to help resettle 17 migrants staying at Euclid Avenue United Methodist Church.
The new amount will come from the village’s general fund, something Trustees Lucia Robinson and Ravi Parakkat disagreed with, prompting them to vote against the resolution.
Community of Congregations has resettled 201 migrants with help from grant funding and the board’s allocation of other general fund dollars. The Oak Park Resettlement Task Force, sponsored by the Community of Congregations, helped find available housing for many asylum-seekers and offered landlords a fully paid, 12-month lease.
Euclid Methodist had not been included in the village’s other resettlement efforts, Human Resources Director Kira Tchang said, because the board directed staff to focus on the temporary shelter sites. Those included Grace Episcopal Church, The Carleton of Oak Park Hotel and West Cook YMCA.
Euclid Methodist also volunteered to shelter the migrants staying there, without the village asking or providing aid, Tchang said. Rev. Colin Knapp, president of Community of Congregations, said the church reached out following the success of their resettlement efforts.
“They are currently seeking to provide the same level of support that the other asylum-seekers within the village’s program and community have received,” Tchang said. “$100,000 would allow folks to move into their own lease agreements … and set themselves on that same pathway toward independence.”
These 17 individuals are the last known asylum-seekers in community housing or staying at faith-based organizations, Tchang said. Calvary Memorial Church also housed migrants for a period of time, she said, but that church has found alternate solutions for all of them.
The $100,000 is intended to fund five leases for these migrant families at Euclid Methodist, Knapp said.
“Euclid United Methodist Church is sort of in a similar place that Grace Episcopal Church was in two months ago, in that they are tired and running out of money,” he said. “There needs to be an offramp of some kind.”
Grace Episcopal Church had to close its migrant shelter March 15, the result of a lack of funding and resources. The village later approved $200,000 in village funds to help the Community of Congregations fund leases for migrants previously staying at Grace in addition to those at St. Edmund School.
Trustee Cory Wesley, who has voted against allocation of village general funds for migrant short-term rental assistance, voted in favor of the resolution Thursday night, citing equity as his reason. He said that because the village has created this framework of helping asylum-seekers, it’s only fair to not exclude others and extend them that same assistance.
“I believe $100,000, even if we have to eat it out of the general fund, for me, is worth the consistency of our values and employing them in a way that is consistent,” he said.
The board also unanimously approved village staff applying for the Cook County Disaster Response and Recovery Fund to help reimburse some of Oak Park’s migrant response.
This reimbursement, if approved, would be related to expenses including food and shelter incurred at the Oak Park Family Transitional Shelter housed at St. Edmund School after the village’s other shelter sites started to close. It will also help transition funding of the OPFTS from state to county.
“We continue to identify and want to maximize all funding options available to the village when it comes to our response,” Tchang said.
The cost of operating the OPFTS did end up much lower than anticipated, Tchang said, because fewer migrants than expected needed to stay there and all were resettled by early April instead of staying until June 30, the shelter’s original end date.
So far, Tchang said, the village has received about $340,000 in reimbursement from the Supporting Municipalities for Asylum Seeker Services grant in the first round and is approved for about $60,000 more. The village has also already been approved for about $365,000 in reimbursement for migrant services from the Cook County Disaster Response and Recovery Fund.
The state understands Oak Park will likely ask for more reimbursement for expenses such as short-term rental assistance for migrants, Tchang said.
“The state has also indicated that they’re learning from us, as a community that has been deeply involved in the response,” she said. “We’re hopeful that will enhance our application.”
Tchang also said village staff intend to present a detailed budget timeline of expenses for the migrant response on April 30.