Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is cracking down to remove the homeless encampment at Chicago O’Hare International Airport following complaints from residents.
During a press conference on Thursday, Lightfoot assured reporters that the homeless crisis at O’Hare would be resolved.
“We absolutely fundamentally cannot have people sleeping in our airports who are homeless,” she said. “That is unacceptable. We are going to continue, within the bounds of the law, to do what is necessary to provide those folks with support but elsewhere. They can’t be in our airports.”
Lightfoot also said that her office is aware of the seriousness of the situation and is working on a solution.
“The fact of the matter is, we have taken and will continue to take the steps that are necessary to move people out of the airports,” she said. “The airports are a very different place than on the street, under an underpass. It’s a secure location, and the message is clear from me to the Department of Aviation, the Police Department up there.”
The Democratic mayor also blasted the media for portraying the city in a bad light after photos showing thousands of homeless people camping inside O’Hare surfaced last week.
The images and videos emerging from the international airport showed the homeless sleeping on heater vents, using the terminal to dry their clothes, and trashing airport bathrooms. The story prompted critics of the mayor to point fingers at Lightfoot’s lack of leadership.
“They’re not just urinating in the hallways,” Democratic Chicago Alderman Raymond Lopez said during an interview on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on Wednesday. “They’re taking baths in the toilets there. They’re making a mockery of what Chicago is here, and we understand that homelessness is a problem we must address.”
“But making O’Hare Airport a homeless shelter for hundreds of people on a daily basis, when we’re trying to welcome people here, when we’re trying to encourage tourism, bring back the business clientele, bring back families to our city, and to only have them greeted by hundreds of homeless who have mental health issues, may be armed, may be not even be clothed, that’s not something that institutes a lot of confidence in our mayor, in our city,” Lopez continued.
