Influx of migrants living at Chicago police stations as city, charity groups scramble to find them shelter

CHICAGO — Two families from Venezuela sat on metal chairs in the lobby of Chicago’s Jefferson Park 16th District police station Tuesday, desperate for permanent shelter after spending months walking and taking buses to get to the United States.

Jessica Chirino said she and her family had been waiting six days to hear from the city about what shelter might have space. “We’ve been through so much to get here, so much, for this,” Chirino told the Tribune in Spanish.

Across the city, migrants overwhelming the city’s social services have been living at police stations while awaiting placement at shelters, raising health and humanitarian concerns among police and community organizations. People seeking asylum have been placed at more than a dozen police districts around the city, sleeping in the lobbies and waiting