City Council approves $51 million in funding for migrant housing amid raucous debate
chicago
BY TODD FEURER, MARISSA PERLMAN, DANA KOZLOV, ASAL REZAEI
UPDATED ON: MAY 31, 2023 / 2:13 PM / CBS CHICAGO
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Chicago City Council voted Wednesday to spend $51 million in funding from a 2021 budget surplus to pay for efforts to care for migrants from Central and South America who have been sent here from Texas, following a heated debate that was repeatedly interrupted by angry protesters.
The vote came one week after three alderpersons opposed to the measure temporarily blocked a final vote during Mayor Brandon Johnson's first City Council meeting.
After arranging for a meeting this week to take up that vote, aldermen approved the funding plan 34-13, after opponents in the council gallery repeatedly booed supporters who spoke up during the public comment period at the start of the meeting and aldermen who spoke during the formal debate, prompting Johnson to repeatedly chastise them, asking for both sides to respect each other's positions and allow each other to speak uninterrupted.
One woman who said she was with the group Black Lives Matter, Women of Faith, said aldermen should not be spending millions to set up temporary shelters for new migrants in Chicago before doing more to address the city's existing problems with homelessness.
https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/city-council-migrant-housing-funds-approved/
