The author used artificial intelligence in the crafting of this article.
Beginning Jan. 1, migrants in Chicago no longer experienced the comfort of having shelters just for them. Migrant homeless people now must stay in the same shelters as homeless Americans in the Windy City.
Denver initiated a similar policy Oct.1, and now all homeless people and families, migrant and otherwise, go through the same system. In Denver, tempers have flared between the two groups as they vie for the same resources. New York, too, is closing migrant shelters as the influx slows to a trickle.
“For several months late last year and earlier this year at Denver Rescue Mission personnel separated migrants from the existing population,” said Dwayne Peterson, an activist who has experienced homelessness, in December 2023. “Migrants were given priority with ‘services,’ sleeping quarters, and meals. As exhibited by the knife-wielding subject from a week ago, verbal assaults from the existing houseless community towards migrants erupted into physical confrontations. ‘You do not belong here.’ ‘We were here first.’ ‘Where is our State of Emergency?’ ‘This is our country,’ were the most ‘mature’ comments expressed.”