City workers rolled up their sleeves in Chicago's West Loop on Monday, clearing out a notorious homeless encampment that had become a hotbed for crime and obstruction, according to city officials. The clear-out began under the viaducts at Lake and Clinton streets, with crews from the Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation sweeping in at around 9:30 a.m. to power wash the troubled area, as reported by CBS Chicago.
Any semblance of home these tents offered is now being scrubbed away following a wave of violence, including a fatal shooting. Descriptions paint a stark picture of the dismantling: tents being uprooted and possessions carried off as pedestrians once wary of the viaduct now watch it transform. Tidbits from ABC7 Chicago interviews reveal that some of the area's precarious residents plan to return post-cleanup.
The urgent scrub-down also features graffiti eradication by the city workers, an attempt to cleanse the grim canvas that had grown beneath the concrete overpasses. This event was ostensibly enacted in response to the uptick in violent incidents in the community, with authorities hoping to cut off the magnet for crime the encampments have become. A man previously shot dead nearby was a grim testament to this surge in local unlawful activities, an incident rooted in a drug deal, as CBS Chicago reported.
Ald. Bill Conway, as noted by ABC7 Chicago, acknowledges the city's offering of rapid rehousing, with some tent residents accepting the help. "We're offering today everyone rapid rehousing, immediate. Seven people have taken us up on it in the past week; 15 have not, but as temperatures drop, we are going to continue to offer that and hope that more people take us up on it," Conway told CBS Chicago.
Lillie Banks, a former viaduct resident who found housing but still checks on her former neighbors, aired her concerns to ABC7 Chicago, "Well hopefully they going, well some people come in to give them shelters, and then some people are going to hotels, and other peoples, you know, some people got family members that might take them."
