A motion to stop the city from building a tent shelter for migrants in Brighton Park was dismissed by a Cook County judge Monday, as the state already put a halt to it.
However, Judge David Atkins ordered the city to alert the plaintiffs — a group of Southwest Side residents — if construction resumes and said the motion could be reintroduced then.
“That’s the appropriate remedy here since there is no construction going on at this time,” said the circuit court judge.
The plaintiffs originally filed the lawsuit in November alleging the camp — which could shelter 2,000 people — will harm the neighborhood, is not zoned for residential use and toxic soil there could harm people.
Attorney Andrew Worseck defended the city’s use of the site given the city’s responsibility to provide “humanitarian relief to these migrants” and also said the plaintiffs didn’t have standing to bring the motion.
“They have no clearly established right or entitlement to object to the construction of a shelter on this site,” Worseck said. “All that the plaintiffs have are the vaguest of allegations about suspected or reported harm to their property values or the community. That is simply not sufficient.”
The city plans to file a motion to dismiss the lawsuit by Friday.
Around 650 migrants were awaiting shelter Monday, according to the city, the fewest number of people since the start of the summer.
Michael Loria is a staff reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times via Report for America, a not-for-profit journalism program that aims to bolster the paper’s coverage of communities on the South Side and West Side.
