As city readies clean-up of West Loop homeless encampment, residents and nearby workers hope more resources are offered

Andrew Bers has been living in a West Loop homeless encampment for the last two months, On Monday, the city plans to clear the area. “This ain’t the first time they’ve done this to me. I’ll just find another viaduct and do the same thing,” Bers says. (Pat Nabong/Sun-Times)

Andrew Bers is used to having to pack up his belongings and look for a new place to lay his head.

For the last two months he’s been staying at a tent encampment under viaducts in the West Loop with other unhoused people. But the area is being cleared Monday, and Bers is getting ready to move again.

“This ain’t the first time they’ve done this to me. I’ll just find another viaduct and do the same thing,” Bers said, adding that he just wants the city to leave them alone.

Neighborhood residents and people who work near the encampment in the area of Clinton and Lake streets said they were glad it was getting cleaned up, but they hope the city offers the people who lived there more resources.

Alvina Garrett, who works at a sandwich shop nearby, said she’s never had any issues with the unhoused under the viaduct. She’s handed out sandwiches to them in the past.

A homeless encampment near Union Station and the Ogilvie Transportation Center gets heavy foot traffic from commuters, and neighbors have said they’ve witnessed daytime drug-dealing and drug use. (Pat Nabong/Sun-Times)

“Just because they are homeless doesn’t mean they are all bad,” said Garrett, 50. “Don’t get me wrong, we have some out here who have mental health issues, who have drug addiction issues, but they’re people too.”

Garrett said she was in favor of the area being clean, but she said it was “sad” that the encampment was being removed because the people there have nowhere else to go. She thinks the city should open up more shelters.

“I think they can do more, the people shouldn’t be out there like that,” Garrett said.

Local Ald. Bill Conway (34th) on Friday announced that the city had approved power washing under the viaducts and the encampment would be cleared. Conway said the encampment has become “a magnet for narcotics and violent crime.”

This month, a 59-year-old man was killed “during a drug deal gone bad” near the encampment, Conway said. The area has been the subject of an ongoing dispute between Conway and Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office.

Restaurant worker Alvina Garrett has given food to people living on the street in the West Loop. “Just because they are homeless doesn’t mean they are all bad,” she said. (Pat Nabong/Sun-Times)

In mid-November, about 1,500 residents signed a petition submitted to the mayor’s office asking for help.

Maria Lewis, who has lived in the neighborhood for about a month, said the encampment hasn’t made her feel unsafe.

“There’s always people under there, but they mind their own business,” Lewis said. “They keep to themselves. As a woman, walking alone I feel safe in this area.”

Lewis, 24, said she didn’t agree with the way the city was going about removing the people living under viaducts.

“There should be some kind of initiative to get them into either shelters or find them someplace else because they can’t just shoo them away, that’s all their stuff, that is their home,” Lewis said.

Victor Tortolero works in a cafe a block away from an encampment for unhoused people at West Lake Street and North Clinton Street in the West Loop. Tortolero is glad to see the encampment cleaned up and hopes the people will receive assistance from the city. (Pat Nabong/Sun-Times)

According to Conway, seven people accepted rehousing help from the Chicago Department of Family and Support Services, and 15 people declined the assistance.

Victor Tortolero, who works at a cafe near the viaducts, said he does feel nervous walking through the encampment. He said he’s encountered people there defecating on the sidewalk.

He’s glad the area is being cleaned up, but he too hopes the people there can get help from the city.

“It can be unsafe, and it’s a really unhealthy place, but they should find something for them,” said Tortolero, 21. “They shouldn’t just kick them out and leave them alone. You don’t fix anything like that, you just move the problem to another place.”