Homeless Encampment Fight Overshadows Long-Awaited Ronan Park Plaza Debut

ALBANY PARK — An event to celebrate a new plaza in Ronan Park that was years in the making became the latest backdrop in an ongoing debate about unhoused residents living in the city’s public parks. 

The public plaza at 2900 W. Lawrence Ave., designed by Perkins and Will and Omni Ecosystems, features a performance stage and enhanced seating along with a bike repair station and other amenities alongside the North Branch of the Chicago River.

The improvements also included an expansion of the Global Garden Refugee Training Farm’s footprint to allow for garden beds, new water access and new gates.

“This new entrance to Ronan Park creates a stronger gateway along Lawrence Avenue, improves access to the Chicago River, enhances native landscapes and creates welcoming public spaces where neighbors can gather for years to come,” Kay Villamin, executive director of the North River Commission, said at the event Wednesday evening. The nonprofit commission developed the 2018 plan that led to the improvements.

Investments like this “create opportunity, strengthen our commercial corridors, reconnect our neighborhoods to the river and make Albany Park an even more welcoming place for everyone who calls it home,” she added.

But what should have been a victory lap for stakeholders and public officials — including Illinois state Sen. Graciela Guzman, Ald. Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez (33rd)
and Chicago Park District Supt. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa — was disrupted by a pair of protests over the fate of a group of unhoused neighbors living nearby.

At least four people holding signs that said, “We want our park back” and “Crime is crime, clear the encampment” were quickly met by a half-dozen neighbors with signs that said, “Housing is a right” and “No more sweeps,” referring to efforts by the city to clear out other parks of encampments in the past. 

The two groups argued just behind the podium of the plaza’s new stage as elected officials and other stakeholders spoke about how the redesigned park and its programs will benefit the community.

Park security tried to calm the two groups who loudly debated over what to do about the park’s encampment and Chicago’s ongoing struggle to prevent homelessness.

“Whoever decided to protest decided to do so at a grand opening of a new public plaza at the park. I don’t know what’s more disrespectful,” remarked encampment resident Leonilo Laude, who’s been living in the park since March, about the dueling groups. “Isn’t that literally raining on someone’s parade?” 

The handful of neighbors demanding the removal of the homeless encampment left the park soon after the ceremony ended. 

The counter-protest was put together on the fly, said Carina, an organizer at the nearby Albany Park Free Store, which has helped the unhoused population at the park in the past. Another volunteer at the store went to the park when she “saw those signs, turned back around and got a note pad and markers and came out to make signs” countering the unwelcoming message, said Carina, who declined to give her full name out of fear of retaliation from the demonstrators.

Tamara Fouche, who held a sign that said “No More Sweeps,” said the neighborhood needs more shelters.

“There are thousands of people who are homeless and more become homeless every day. It’s not reasonable to just keep shuffling people around and expect them to figure it out without any kind of support,” Fouché said.

A Cycle Of Displacement

The riverfront parks along the North Branch of the Chicago River have been the site of multiple encampments of unhoused people. City officials have repeatedly cleared out the encampments while outreach workers attempt to place them in housing around the city. 

However, many of the unhoused neighbors’ network and family, friends and jobs are often within walking distance of where they’re living along the river, housing advocates said.

The Haven On Lincoln is one attempt to address the North Side’s unhoused population and is based upon the success of a COVID-19-era program to slow the spread of the virus. 

And during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the city used increased federal funding to create a rapid rehousing program and an accelerated moving events program to help unhoused Chicagoans get stable housing and related supportive services. After those federal funds dried up at the end of last year, attempts to fill that funding gap — including a corporate head tax and the Bring Chicago Home referendum — have failed to pass.

Overall, there aren’t enough resources to meet current demand, officials said.

The 33rd Ward office isn’t equipped to solve the city’s homelessness crisis alone and until long-term funding can be found, Rodriguez-Sanchez relied on a network of neighbors, nonprofits, mutual aid groups and small business owners to help people living in the encampment, she said.

“The only way that we’re gonna be able to house people is by getting the revenue to do so. And for that we need to tax the rich,” Rodriguez-Sanchez said Wednesday night. “I really wish I had housing available to just put people into.”

‘You’re Intruding On Them’

Michael Caplan, who has lived in Albany Park for 27 years and walks his dog through Ronan Park about twice a day, sees both sides of the issue. He is happy the North River Commission’s plan for the riverside park from eight years ago is now a reality, he said. 

“It’s fantastic. I think it opens up the neighborhood and makes the whole park feel a lot more inviting,” Caplan said.

But he also has concerns about the encampment after there was damage to the park’s multi-ethnic sculpture park and healing garden that was installed in 2011 as people live, cook and dry their laundry in what resembles a Hooverville-style shantytown from the Great Depression, he said. 

“That’s a hell of a thing to think, right?” Caplan said. “And how much money was the city going to give to the Chicago Bears for Soldier Field?” 

The dirt around artist Indira Freitas Johnson’s “Ten Thousand Ripples” installation has been dug up and Dora Natella’s “Overseer” sculpture is now wrapped in a blanket and wearing a knit cap. 

“The solution to this is obviously housing. But in the short run, you spread out people. If you go just across the river there’s only one or two tents there. Here there’s 20,” Caplan said. “Just say to people, you’ve got to spread out.” 

The park is supposed to be for everyone but the encampments have neighbors weary of using the park as they normally would, Caplan said.

“Yes, you could still use it. But you’re intruding on them. And it’s the only place that has picnic tables,” Caplan said of the area where the encampment is located.

Homeless Residents Know Time At Park Is Limited

Laude, who lost his home at Kilpatrick and Lawrence to a fire three years ago, lived at the Legion Park encampment that was cleared by the city during a March cold snap before moving to Ronan Park. He understands why some neighbors fear them.

“People are gonna be scared of what they don’t understand. That’s just human nature,” Laude said. “But unless you come down here and see it for yourself, you’re forever going to be scared. You can’t tell me from just looking out a window that you know exactly what is going on here.” 

Laude anticipates that city officials will at some point clear the Ronan Park camp — meaning he’ll end up on the other side of the river or at a nearby park, starting the entire cycle over again, he said.

Laude said he was offered housing in the past, but in West Pullman on the Far South Side.

“C’mon, man. We’re on the North Side. I’ve got work on the North Side and I’m originally from here,” he said. “I’m comfortable being around the people that I know. Not everybody can be thrown onto the South Side or the West Side and be comfortable with that.” 

He’d still like to get a place of his own, in part because of his own security concerns.

“Living here you have to watch out 24/7 in case somebody is going to take your stuff,” he said.

But he faces a Catch-22: He can’t get a better job without reliable transportation or a home with a permanent address, but needs a job to be able afford either on a long-term basis.

“Look, nobody wants to hire anybody that says they’re living in the park. And I have a hard time taking public transportation. Everyone wants you to have a car, bike, motorcycle or whatever,” Laude said. “And those are the things that are hardest to come by.”

Neighbors that don’t want people living in tents at Ronan Park should attend public meetings and reach out to public officials to advocate for city funding of support services to break the pattern of reshuffling housing unstable people around the city, Laude said. 

A safe home and a job is what the encampment residents need, he said.

“That’ll set us up for life. And that’s the total goal in life anyways: finding a decent job you like and where you want to live,” Laude said. “We’re asking for help to get back up on our feet but while we’re doing things to try to fix our situation, some neighbors are kicking us while we’re down.”