The City of Chicago has stood up migrant shelters to meet the needs of homeless asylum-seekers arriving to our city. Individuals in need of shelter should contact 311 or visit the nearest police station to request assistance with submitting a shelter request. 

The Department of Family and Support Services (DFSS) and the Office of Emergency Management and Communications (OEMC) are vetting suitable City-owned assets to serve as temporary emergency shelters. If there are facilities in your community suitable for temporary shelter that can accommodate 200+ people daily, please fill out the following form. DFSS and OEMC teams will follow up to vet all possible options.

Minimum parameters for sites:

• 200-person capacity,
• no major repairs needed,
• access to showers or the ability to support a shower trailer

Preferred, but not required criteria:

• Space Use/Zoning
  • First Preference: Residential (including residential clusters and institutions)
  • Second Preference: Commercial/Retail (including commercial campuses)
• Close to Public Transportation
• ADA Compliant
• Has sufficient showers for the number of people sleeping in the facility
• Has ample parking
• Has either one large congregate area or numerous individual rooms to support sleeping, feeding, and service provision
• A location for eating, a cafeteria space would be ideal; or communal area for gathering
• Minimal effort to set up WiFi
• Space/ability to hook up commercial laundry machines
• Ideally a discrete outdoor area for smoke breaks
• Easily accessible entrance for buses, ideally discrete/private from the road
• Primary front-door entrance with space for security desk and easy monitoring of in/out flow

New Arrivals - Available Buildings or Spaces (office.com)