Death of 5-year-old boy prompts criticism of Chicago shelters for migrants

A 5-year-old boy living at a temporary shelter for migrants in Chicago died over the weekend after being transported to a hospital after suffering a medical emergency, the city's mayor said Monday.

The boy's death on Sunday revived community organizers' complaints about conditions at shelters and questions about how Chicago is responding to an influx of people unaccustomed to the city's cold winters and with few local contacts.

Chicago and other northern U.S. cities have struggled to find housing for tens of thousands of asylum-seekers, many of whom have been bused from Texas throughout the last year. Earlier this month, hundreds of asylum-seekers still awaited placement at airports and police stations in Chicago, some of them still camped on sidewalks outside precinct buildings.

Although the city reports that police stations have been mostly cleared, massive shelters are not necessarily a safe alternative, said Annie Gomberg, a volunteer with the city's Police Station Response Team who has been working with Chicago's new arrivals since April. Gomberg said about 2,300 people have been staying at the shelter where the boy was living.

“The shelters are completely locked down to outside access. They’re doing this allegedly in order to protect the residents inside,” Gomberg said. But she said she suspects part of the reason for tight security is so the public cannot see how the shelters are being run.

“The people who live inside are coming to us and saying, ‘please give us blankets, give us clothing for our children, we need bottles, we need diapers,’” she said.

Jean Carlos Martinez, 5, was a resident at a shelter in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood when he suffered a medical emergency, then died shortly after arriving at Comer Children’s Hospital on Sunday afternoon, said an emailed statement from Mayor Brandon Johnson.

“City officials are providing support to the family and are still gathering information on this tragedy,” Johnson said. “My heart and my prayers go out to the Martinez family.”

City officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the conditions at the shelter played a role in the child's death.

Nearly 26,000 asylum-seekers have arrived in Chicago since August 2022. The city has resettled or reunited over 10,000 migrants and is providing shelter for nearly 14,000 others in 27 temporary shelters, according to a statement from the mayor's office Monday afternoon.

Chicago's spending on resources for new arrivals totals $137 million, according to a city dashboard. The city says it has been ticketing and impounding buses trying to drop off migrants outside of designated zones.

“As temperatures continue to fall, the City is enacting stricter penalties to discourage bus companies from flouting these protocols. The inhumane treatment further endangers the safety and security of asylum seekers, and adds additional strain to City departments, volunteers and mutual aid partners tasked with easing what is already a harsh transition,” the statement said.

Martinez was “not feeling well” when EMS transported him to a hospital, where he was later pronounced dead, Chicago police said, adding that detectives are investigating the incident.

Gomberg sent The Associated Press videos taken by shelter residents showing coughing and crying children in the crowded Pilsen shelter where Martinez was staying. One video showed water leaking from the ceiling onto the cots below.

Gomberg said people staying there told her mold is visible in the shelter, and lack of insulation makes the repurposed warehouse very cold. One of the photos shows a toddler wearing a snow suit and winter hat indoors.

“If you know Chicago at all, this is really when the rubber meets the road," she said. “We could very easily have paralyzing snowstorms. We could very easily have below zero temperatures.”

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Savage is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.