Chicago's migrant crisis coverup: Mayor Brandon Johnson REFUSES to admit how much city is paying for its 27 shelters - as report shows almost $1MILLION A WEEK is being spent on just THREE hotels
- The Windy City has struggled to care for more than 34,000 asylum-seekers bussed in from the border
- Chicago has refused to reveal where all of the funds are going or how much various out-of-state companies are profiting
- Mayor Brandon Johnson refused to directly answer questions about the funding
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has been criticized for refusing to be completely transparent on where hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars have gotten to the city's homeless shelters amid a migrant crisis.
The Windy City has struggled to care for more than 34,000 asylum-seekers bussed in from the border by Texas Governor Greg Abbott over the past 18 months.
It has spent $300 million on the crisis and has been fighting with the state of Illinois about where to build more shelters and is currently fighting a measles outbreak at one of the shelters.
The state attempted to quell fears on how taxpayer money would be spent on the crisis by launching a page on the state comptroller's website that would track it.
However, the city has refused to reveal where all of the funds are going, with the Democrat Johnson being evasive when questioned by the press.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has been criticized for refusing to be completely transparent on where hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars have gotten to the city's homeless shelters amid a migrant crisis
The city has only provided full transparency on funding for a third of the city's 27 shelters.
However, the ones that they did are getting as much as $344,000 a week in taxpayer cash, which is the price tag for The Inn in Chicago. It has 1,500 beds. That would make out to $17 million over the course of a year.
Other shelters like the site in the city's Pilsen neighborhood are getting $280,000 a week, with the Ogden shelter getting $150,000 a week. These shelters are servicing 2,000 and 1,000 migrants, respectively and pocketing millions over the last three months.
The Pilsen shelter is notable for an outbreak of measles that is now at 14 cases, with the city forced to mandate vaccinations, according to WTTW.
What's caused even more outrage is the city allegedly hiding where those funds are going by using out-of-state private companies to staff the shelters, NBC Chicago reported.
City records indicate that $206 million has gone to Favorite Health Care standing, a Kansas-based company whose high cost has angered Chicago officials.
A Kentucky-based company called Equitable Social Solutions has received $45 million to identify where shelters are located.
Alderman Andre Vasquez, the chairman of the city council's migrant committee, is angry that the city won't reveal what those companies have made in profits.
The Windy City has struggled to care for more than 34,000 asylum-seekers bussed in from the border by Texas Governor Greg Abbott over the past 18 months
The Inn in Chicago is serving as a shelter with 1,500 beds. They are reportedly making 344,000 a week in taxpayer cash
Chicago's South Ogden Avenue shelter is getting $150,000 a week to hold 1,000 migrants
The Pilsen shelter is notable for an outbreak of measles that is now at 14 cases, with the city forced to mandate vaccinations
'I think it's a bit more translucent than transparent. You get some information but not the full picture,' Vazquez said.
None of the companies or landlords involved have commented on the situation.
'So I think something that we've been looking at is how to really get more mandated reporting from the government as they're making decisions, because our constituents are asking us those very questions,' Vazquez added.
At least one landlord offered his building as a shelter and was set to meet with city officials before they were told not to come on their way to the meeting.
But when pressed on providing further transparency, Johnson dodged the question.
'Thank you for that question,' Johnson said. 'Again, we are meeting you right where you are.'
DailyMail.com has reached out to Mayor Johnson's office for comment.
The number of asylum seekers in city shelters appears to be falling after peaking at 15,000 in December, when officials warned that the system had 'reached capacity.'
A worrying 69 percent of Chicagoans disapprove of Johnson's handling of the migrant crisis
Venezuelan migrants are bused into Chicago by Texas Governor Greg Abbott this past December
Chicago residents have held meetings against Mayor Johnson's migrant policy, including this event last year against his plans to turn a park district field house into a shelter for migrants
Arriving migrants were forced to sleep in Chicago police stations earlier on in the crisis
Johnson at the time joined the mayors of New York and Denver, which are also inundated with migrants, to call for the crisis to be declared a federal emergency, freeing up funds to bail out the struggling cities.
Shelters in converted warehouses in Chicago have been filled to the brim with new arrivals living in poor conditions, leading to the city commandeering other venues.
Johnson has insisted the city would not open any more migrant shelters, and called on Illinois Governor JB Pritzker to make good on promises to build its own ones.
Mayor Johnson himself says the huge influx of migrants is unsustainable, but he can't turn them away because Chicago is a 'sanctuary city'.
He blamed both the Biden Administration and Texas for his city struggling to care for the about 15,000 asylum-seekers crammed into 28 shelters across the city.
Governor Abbott has sent more than 25,300 migrants to Chicago since August 2022, on buses.
Chicago tried to have them arrive at designated locations during business hours and impounding buses that didn't follow these rules.
However, bus companies responded by dropping off migrants as far as 60 miles from Chicago, and Abbott started sending them on charter flights.
Conditions in Chicago's migrant shelters have been under a microscope since five-year-old boy Jean Carlo Martinez Rivero died on December 17.
Johnson maintained there was 'no evidence the condition of the shelter caused the death of this young boy'.
Volunteers who try to help the asylum-seekers as best they can argue differently, submitting lists of concerns to city officials months before Jean's death.
Photos and videos inside the shelter where he died showed 2,300 migrants huddled together in freezing temperatures under a leaking roof.
One video showed a young boy with what appeared to be a bandage on his head lying on a thin fold-out bed, distracting himself with a tablet.
Another shows a different child coughing and crying as they had their temperature taken and were examined by volunteers.
A third video showed water leaking from the roof and pooling on one of the beds.
