Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration spent $814,000 on a giant fence as part of an effort to shut down one of the city’s largest and most visible homeless encampments ahead of the Democratic National Convention, City Hall records show.
The massive barrier was part of an “emergency” effort to permanently lock out unhoused people from the location near the United Center, where the convention was held, the records obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times show.
The Johnson administration had refused to say how much taxpayer money went toward blocking off the green strip of land between the 1100 block of South Desplaines Street and the Dan Ryan Expressway just north of Roosevelt Road, until after the nationally televised gathering was over. The Sun-Times has been asking for those records, which should be public under state law, since July, when that tent city was cleared of its residents, the tents and the items they left behind.
A homeless advocate is critical of the decision to spend money to keep unhoused people away from the convention rather than doing more to help those who were cleared out.
“Why are we investing in a fence,” says Monica Dillon, a registered nurse and member of the Northwest Side Homeless Outreach Volunteers, “rather than something that could save their lives?”
Dillon says the money spent blocking off the Desplaines Street site could have been used to “help improve the city’s extreme-weather winter response plan.”
She and other advocates for homeless people are pressing for the city’s six community centers that are open to the public during extreme heat and extreme cold to extend the limited hours they’re normally open, to 24 hours seven days a week — a model that New York City uses, Dillon says.
Johnson has said clearing the space that had housed about 30 tents had nothing to do with the city hosting tens of thousands of people for the DNC.
But City Hall’s contract allowing for “emergency” spending of up to $1 million for fencing says that this was needed “to address a threat to public safety and city operations during the 2024 Democratic National Convention.”
That took effect “as of the date of the mayor’s signature” — May 24 — allowing city Department of Transportation officials to add the work to an existing city contract with a Chicago company, Industrial Fence Inc., that City Hall hired through a competitive-bidding process in 2017.
The mayor’s office didn’t respond to requests for comment.
“The new fence was installed to ensure the safety and security of the site while allowing continued access for maintenance and repair crews,” according to city transportation department spokeswoman Erica Schroeder. “This decision was made in collaboration with multiple city departments, as the location posed safety and health risks not only to people living in the encampment but also to those visiting or passing by the location, given its proximity to the expressway.”
The city spent $814,233.75 on the 10-feet-tall, powder-coated “ornamental iron fence” that spans 1,375 feet — a cost of $592.17 per foot.
The barrier runs south on Desplaines, west on Roosevelt and north along the expressway’s exit ramp at Taylor Street. It was installed just inside a 5- to 6-feet-tall chain-link barrier that had been put up in July as a temporary barrier.
The taller barrier was completed Aug, 9, Schroeder says — 10 days before the convention began.
On July 17, the encampment’s last residents were moved out and encouraged to go to a city-run shelter in the former Tremont Hotel, 100 E. Chestnut St., while working to get permanent housing.
That prompted Ald. Andre Vasquez (45th), a Johnson ally, to criticize the move to “hide Chicago’s homeless.”
As of late August, 49 people were staying at the hotel shelter.
The Tremont program, which has been extended and now runs through Sept. 15, was smaller than the city’s winter shelter of 116 beds. Some of the people from the winter program reported being evicted as summer residents were moving in.
How much the summer shelter is costing city taxpayers isn’t clear. The city’s Department of Family and Support Services won’t discuss the cost, saying that the contract “has not been fully executed” and declining to respond to further questions.
One of Chicago’s largest and most visible tent cities, between the 1100 block of South Desplaines Street and the Dan Ryan Expressway, is permanently cordoned off by a massive fence that city officials say was “to address a threat to public safety and city operations during the 2024 Democratic National Convention.”
Peyton Reich / Sun-Times
The city’s online records show Industrial Fence has had city contracts dating to 2002. In 2017, the city Department of Aviation, which oversees O’Hare Airport and Midway Airport, chose the veteran- and certified minority-owned business as its winning bidder in 2017 for up to $17 million worth of work doing “maintenance, repair and installation of various fencing, guardrail and related equipment” through 2022.
Records show the company, which is based in Lawndale, has been paid $43 million for city contracts since 2003, not including any payment for the Desplaines Street work.
Industrial Fence didn’t respond to a request for comment.