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A tent city in Chicago was torn down this week as the metropolis' homelessness crisis intensifies.
Police emptied tents stationed in Legion Park, forcing their residents into below-freezing temperatures as protesters gathered nearby.
Advocates, including Heartland Alliance Health Street Outreach Supervisor Ryan Spangler, said this was just the latest move in a never-ending game of 'whack-a-mole' by officials in the Windy City.
'They close one and then folks just move to a different place,' he told Block Club Chicago.
'It's just pushing the problem elsewhere, instead of dealing with the root causes of what an encampment is, which is a failure of our systems, not of people experiencing homelessness.'
According to the city's annual count released last July, Chicago is home to 7,452 unhoused people. That's the second-highest number for the city in more than a decade.
Roughly 20 of those individuals were living in the public park until law enforcement swept the area.
The Department of Family and Support Services has connected 16 of the residents with long-term affordable housing, and two more are working with providers.
Chicago's latest homelessness count racked up to approximately 7,452 people. A file photo of homeless people outside a Chicago police station in 2023
The city saw the second highest number of homeless people last year, statistics for the last decade revealed
Advocates have said forcibly removing homeless individuals from their encampments can be damaging
But, residents may not be able to move in for another month.
While they have been offered places in the shelter system in the meantime, a representative for Parks for All said much of Chicago's homeless population does not feel safe there.
The city has a shortage of more than 126,000 affordable rentals for the lowest-income residents, data from Housing Action Illinois showed.
Many landlords who offer affordable housing are located on the South and West sides of Chicago.
All Chicago, a social services organization, told CBS, potential residents wait an average of four years before they are set up with long-term housing.
Forcing homeless individuals to relocate away from their support system can be disruptive and unnecessarily traumatic.
'We lose track of folks. Folks lose their belongings, lose their documents. They're put through displacement and trauma, which causes them to further disengage from the process and lose trust in our systems,' Spangler said.
Heartland Alliance Health Street outreach supervisor Ryan Spangler called the city's approach a game of 'whack-a-mole'
'So it's the exact opposite of what we should be doing.'
Despite the turmoil, many neighbors near Legion Park supported the closure after fires in the area in November and February stemming from open flames at the campsite.
The Hollywood-North Park Community Association said it supported the Legion Park shutout.
'The conditions that make this encampment dangerous are specific to this location and do not apply to all parks,' they said in a statement.
'Closing the encampment in Legion Park acknowledges these risks without criminalizing homelessness elsewhere in the City. This is not a precedent; it is an exception.'
Parks for All worked to create a counter-proposal after the city evicted residents from the makeshift camp.
The proposal would have required residents to set up their tents at least 50ft away from nearby business and residential property lines.
One advocate argued that homeless people 'need public spaces to survive'
On scathing petition even said officers who booted homeless individuals from public areas were doing 'Trump's work for him'. Pictured is an encampment in the city in 2024
Mary Tarullo, the director of public policy at the Chicago Coalition to End Homelessness, said Legion Park is necessary for residents' survival.
'Until there are accessible housing options for everyone experiencing homelessness across the whole city, people need public spaces in order to survive,' she said.
Parks for All started a petition in support of allowing homeless Chicagoans to set up camp in Legion Park.
'Do not do Trump's work for him by destroying encampments,' read the petition.
'There are other ways to maintain our parks and protect unhoused people than to forcibly displace them.'