Crews Remove All Tents From Gompers Park

NORTH MAYFAIR — After nearly a year of turmoil between residents of a Northwest Side encampment, advocates and some neighbors, all tents have been removed from Gompers Park.

The Monday morning removal carried out by the Chicago Park District was part of a “coordinated cleaning event” to prepare for the construction of a nature play space at the park, 4222 W. Foster Ave. It came months after the city conducted a rapid rehousing event at Gompers, matching about 30 tent city residents with housing.

Signs went up around the park in April asking those living in the tents to relocate by the May 12 cleaning date. Some residents of the encampment said the signs were taken down Sunday evening, leading to confusion and some hope that the cleanup wouldn’t happen. The Park District didn’t address those complaints.

Former alderman and Park District CEO Carlos Ramirez-Rosa said several tents in the park — which totaled about 13 as of Monday morning — had been abandoned and residents of others planned to move. He told neighbors gathered on the park’s basketball court that the move was necessary to move forward with planned construction.

“We’re going to give everyone time to move their things,” Ramirez-Rosa told neighbors. “Everyone is under clear directions. We are not here to escalate things. We are not here to have people arrested. We are here to engage in [a] coordinated cleaning event … we are working to make as much progress here today so that construction can start this week on the nature play space, the lagoon restoration and on this parking lot.”

As he spoke, workers put up caution tape around the encampment area on Pulaski. Soon after, workers began gathering couches, pallets and other items that sat around the tents, before leaving them for a crane to pick up. The crane also picked up tents that were deemed unoccupied tents, while personal items were left behind.  

But other residents still living in tents as of Monday morning said they were forced to either quickly gather their things or leave them behind. That included residents who were still in their tents while the crane removed other tents nearby.

Desiray, who asked not to give her last name, said the notices of enforcement were removed Sunday and she was told she wouldn’t have to move. Believing that, she didn’t move her belongings that evening.

Battling a cold, Desiray grabbed her bed, pillows and other items and loaded them into bags. Neighbors and advocates helped her move her possessions across the street, where many residents of the Gompers encampment relocated in recent days.

Desiray is expected to move into an apartment in about a week, but the process to get connected to housing is generally murky in Chicago. City officials were just doing their job Monday, Desiray said, but she worried for others who may not be as easily able to go somewhere else. 

“The only reason they gave us housing was because we were under a microscope,” she said of the city’s coordinated Accelerated Moving Event in March. “I don’t know how many times I’ve tried to get housing in my lifetime.”

Another resident, who asked not to be identified, said she was “in shock, in denial,” seeing the site cleared.

“I’ve been living there for three years and now it’s gone,” she said.

Gompers residents who still lacked housing were told they could move across the street, near the Harmony Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center or to the corner of Foster and Pulaski, an area some neighbors worried could flood because of the slope of the land.

“Residents were asked to relocate to another area of the park by Sunday, May 11 to allow construction to begin today,” Michele Lemons, a Park District spokesperson, said in an emailed statement. “Recommendations were made to residents on locations to avoid areas where flooding occurs. The Park District will continue to work with DFSS and other service organizations to connect residents with resources including housing.”

The encampment is being moved to allow for the construction of a $50,000 nature play space. Lagoon restoration work and the resurfacing of the parking lot will also take place this spring and summer, according to the Park District.

The move to clear the tents and ask those remaining to relocate comes two months after the city’s rapid rehousing event at Gompers. Linsey Maughan, a spokeswoman for the city’s Department of Family and Support Services, said nine of the 30 people connected to housing around the March 5 Accelerated Moving Event had moved into apartments last week.

Mike McCarthy has lived in the area his entire life and remembered visiting the park as a child. He welcomed the removal of the tents and said he was “disappointed in the city for allowing this to happen in the park I grew up in.”

“It’s unfortunate that there are people who need homes but they shouldn’t be allowed to put up tents here,” he said. “I’m glad they’re taking action now but I wish they did something sooner.”

Sarah-Jayne Ashenhurst, who lives nearby and works with the 39th Ward Neighbors United to support encampment residents, said she was happy to see some residents get housed through the moving event, but it’s not a “silver bullet” and “there’s not enough housing on the Northwest Side” for all who want it.

She said she hopes the city will do more to address the affordable housing crisis.

“One thing I hope comes out of today is that housed residents like me, parents like me, can start to get real about what’s possible,” Ashenhurst said. “What’s possible is actually that this park is as beautiful and usable as it already is, and that we don’t push people out of our community because we don’t like to see the realities of homelessness.”

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