Less than a month after Oak Park’s village board allocated $500,000 in unspent American Rescue Plan Act funding to aid asylum-seekers, the village’s Emergency Operations Center has outlined protocols to send any new arrivals away.
Dan Yopchick, the Village of Oak Park’s chief communications officer, told Wednesday Journal village manager Kevin Jackson did not have time to discuss the Dec. 7 memorandum on Thursday.
“To accept more migrants without the ability to do that planning and have those resources is unfair to them as much as it is to a community that’s attempting to step forward and do what they can,” said village president Vicki Scaman.
At the Nov. 20 board of trustees meeting, when village staff proposed $1 million in ARPA funding to help aid migrants, Jackson and trustees acknowledged that space to provide shelter was limited. The village board ultimately allocated only $500,000 of that proposed $1 million to aid the asylum seekers.
Yopchick said the Dec. 7 memorandum was sent in response to “no notice” buses of migrants turning up in nearby areas, such as Cicero and Rosemont. No such buses have yet arrived in Oak Park, he said.
“We’re doing everything we can,” Yopchick said.
The Dec. 7 memorandum states that any asylum seekers who arrive in Oak Park will not be allowed to disembark from a bus and will be advised that local shelters are at capacity. The driver will be directed to continue to the city of Chicago “landing zone,” according to the memorandum.
If asylum seekers disembark a bus, village staff will contact the city of Chicago and request Chicago Transit Authority vehicles to transport the migrants to the city, according to the memorandum. If those vehicles are not available, village staff will contact the West Suburban Consolidated Dispatch Center.
The police department will be responsible for enforcing “no notice” buses of migrants being turned away. It will be dependent on the bus driver to explain why, Yopchick said. He said he is not aware of any cost that this decision might incur.
Village staff keeps track of the existing census of migrants that have been in Oak Park since early November, Yopchick said, which will allow the village to differentiate between migrants who are already here and any new arrivals.
A Dec. 13 memorandum from the village’s Emergency Operations Center states the village has been unable to find shelter for migrants in Oak Park beyond the end of January 2024. Those asylum seekers are currently staying at the West Cook YMCA or The Carleton of Oak Park Hotel. They will have to leave by Jan. 31, 2024, and have already been notified of this, Yopchick said.
Scaman said local churches may continue to step forward to shelter migrants, but no additional space is available from the village at this time.
“Next steps really rely on receiving additional funding from the county, the state or the federal government,” she said. “Without it, our hands are a little tied.”
The board did not specifically direct the Dec. 7 memorandum, Scaman said, but it has also not provided the village manager with additional resources beyond the $500,000 allocated during the Nov. 20 meeting.
“It would require board direction to accept additional migrants under the care of our municipal government,” she said.
Taking in additional migrants requires planning and collaboration, and resources to provide aid do not currently exist, Scaman said.
Even if the village received advance notice of migrants’ arrival, the village manager would respond there is no space available for them and notify the board, Scaman said. The board could then make the decision to provide alternative aid, she said.
“The possibility that the board can do whatever the majority of the board wants doesn’t necessarily change what’s available,” she said.
Trustee Susan Buchanan said the board of trustees did not vote on the Dec. 7 memorandum. The village staff made the decision because there are no additional beds available at locations such as the West Cook YMCA and The Carleton of Oak Park Hotel, where some migrants who arrived at the end of October are currently staying.
“While the communication of that decision might not have been received by the public well, the village made this decision because there are no more beds available to village staff to house migrants,” she said.
The village is looking at other avenues to continue assisting migrants who are already here, Buchanan said, but she is not aware of additional housing efforts. There is the potential for additional funding, such as the roughly $500,000 leftover in unspent ARPA funds, to be allocated to migrant response, she said, but there are no concrete plans at this time.
“Village staff cares about the welfare of the migrants and is working really, really hard to do the best for them,” Buchanan said. “There are limitations to what our village government is staffed up and funded to do.”
Trustee Ravi Parakkat said Oak Park’s response for migrants has been highly inefficient because the village is paying roughly $300,000 a month for only about 160 people to receive temporary food and shelter.
“Unless we stop new migrants from coming into the community in an unplanned fashion, which is what prompted the whole issue, it is going to be very difficult to solve the problem at hand,” he said.
Parakkat, who said it was a poor decision to facilitate the original group of migrants’ stay in Oak Park, is not opposed to further discussions about aid for asylum seekers. No one in Oak Park is against anything that is humanitarian, Parakkat said, but he believes the opportunities for them are better in Chicago.
“We have to be willing to understand our limitations as a small community and we shouldn’t take on problems that are beyond our limits,” he said.
The village is looking at expanding affordable housing, Parakkat said, but it would be hard for individuals to sustain, considering Oak Park is an expensive place to live.
“It [this issue] has been portrayed as a model issue about people who are against the migrants versus people who are for migrants,” he said. “That is definitely not the case. Everybody wants these people to have a good life.”
Trustee Lucia Robinson said she has no comment on the decision.
The other trustees did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
This story was updated at 4:40 p.m. 12/14/23 to reflect additional comments. It may be updated again.