Police called on volunteers delivering food to migrants in Chicago

The city is investigating after police were called Thursday night on volunteers serving food to asylum-seekers outside a temporary shelter at the YMCA in West Ridge.

The three volunteers said the shelter’s city-contracted security guards threatened and harassed them and told them to leave the premises before calling police as the volunteers passed out food to the migrants, who told them they’d only been served “bread and apples” inside the shelter.

“They have no warm clothing. People were shivering. They were ravenous,” said Laurie Hasbrook, one of the volunteers.

Cristina Pacione-Zayas, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s deputy chief of staff, told the Tribune on Friday there was an ongoing investigation into the incident, but couldn’t comment further. The asylum-seeker shelters are manned day and night by Favorite Staffing, a contracted vendor that works to support management operations, according to a statement from the city.

Favorite Staffing did not return emails or calls for comment. Chicago police confirmed that there was a service call at the shelter, but no reports were filed.

The confrontation comes as volunteers across the city have raised concerns about the treatment of migrants staying in the nearly dozen city-run shelters. Migrants have complained about overcrowding, moldy and cold food and harsh sleeping conditions.

[ Overcrowding, cold food and uncertain futures a way of life for migrants in Chicago’s shelters ]

On Monday, volunteers told the Tribune they’d been disappointed by the city’s response at a meeting to their request to enter the temporary city-run shelters, following months of not being able to get inside the buildings that house the more than 10,000 migrants who have come to Chicago since August.

The city opened Daley College as a shelter this week, and there are plans to open a new respite center at the Gage Park Field House, Ald. Raymond López, 15th, announced Friday. A shelter is also being considered for the field house at Broadway Armory Park in Edgewater, but Nicole Granacki, the chief of staff for Ald. Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth, 48th, said a community meeting to discuss the plan won’t be held until July.

[ Volunteers feel shut out of city meeting on migrants, meanwhile move is made to new shelter at Daley College ]

Hasbrook said she and the two other volunteers, Sorsha Urquiza and Michelle Drucker, drove to West Ridge on Thursday because they heard there were asylum-seekers staying in the YMCA who were “cold and hungry.” The three had been delivering food and clothing to migrants staying at a temporary shelter in the Leone Beach Park field house in Rogers Park, and decided to share the extra pan of food they had from Smack Dab restaurant with the migrants in West Ridge.

The YMCA facility features a chain link fence on Western Avenue, guarded by a city-contracted worker. When the women drove up, they were asked to leave, Hasbrook said.

A woman working for the shelter allegedly told the volunteers she was concerned for the safety of the migrants, saying that she worried that people might try to poison them, Drucker said.

But the women moved down the driveway, away from the fence, and began passing out meals.

This upset staff at the YMCA, according to the women. As more asylum-seekers came out for food, staff at the shelter began taking photos of the women’s license plates, Drucker said.

“One guard gets in our face, saying he’s going to call the police,” Hasbrook said. “They were just being bullies. It was ridiculous and threatening.”

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Two squad cars with two officers each and a police wagon arrived, the women said. No arrests were made, but the officers waited until volunteers were finished, then left the premises, they said.

“They were great, very calm,” Hasbrook said. “The officer had a conversation with us, and we just told him it’s a human right to eat.”

A police officer on scene spoke Spanish, asking the migrants what they had eaten. They said they had only been given bread and apples at the shelter, Drucker said. A man wearing flip-flops came up to Drucker and asked for shoes, she said.

Drucker said she has worked in shelters and residential facilities. They’ve been told migrants don’t need anything, that they should stop donating things, she said.

“I would love to be able to collaborate. Just to go into the parking lot,” she said. “It doesn’t have to be welcomed in, just not pushed out.”

nsalzman@chicagotribune.com

larodriguez@chicagotribune.com