300 migrants to be housed at shuttered Catholic church on Chicago’s Northwest Side

A shuttered church in Portage Park will serve as a new migrant family shelter, the city announced Friday.

The Archdiocese of Chicago will lease St. Bartholomew Catholic Church at no cost — months after church officials offered to house new arrivals rent-free at the church. In turn, the city will sub-lease the building to the Zakat Foundation, which provides emergency relief and aid, to care for 300 new arrivals starting later this month, Johnson’s office said.

An agreement was made and the shelter was to open in January, but the deal never went through.

Despite offers to house migrants rent-free in over a dozen church-owned locations, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration instead leased several privately-owned shelter spaces. Others were housed in buildings own by the city or the Chicago Park District.

Hundreds of migrants will be moving out of five Chicago Park District shelters in the coming weeks to allow the Park District’s spring programming to resume.