Homeless seek refuge at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport

Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport has turned into a sprawling, “dystopian” encampment for the Windy City’s rising homeless population – sparking serious safety concerns among staff and passengers, who say they’ve been followed and harrassed.

Shocking photos show filthy makeshift shelters set up inside the major travel hub’s terminals. One photo even shows a vagrant collapsed and asleep inside a terminal vestibule.

“It’s out of control. None of us feel safe,” Vonkisha Chatman, a custodian who works the overnight shift in Terminal 1 and 2, told CBS News.

Chatman said she and her coworkers have been harassed by the unwelcome guests, who leave litter behind and trash the bathrooms.

“They will come up behind you. This one man followed us last night,” another airport worker, Catherine Thompson, told the news outlet.

“From the time we get here until the time we leave in the morning, they will be here.”

The two women said their supervisors tell them to call police, but they claim cops told them they can’t intervene unless the workers are physically touched.

“They just tell us to be careful because it’s out of their hands — like they can’t do anything,” Chatman said.

One Twitter user posted photographs of a homeless man sprawled on the floor in Terminal 2 – and called on Mayor Lori Lightfoot to address the problem.

“@chicagosmayor please clean up this city! This is the current state of O’hare airport, homeless everywhere, sleeping all over terminal 2 and getting in peoples faces yelling,” the concerned citizen wrote earlier this month.

“This is the first impression people get when they land in this city,” she added.

Another fed-up traveler shared a startling image of several homeless people camped barefoot among their belongings and litter between a glass door and an escalator.

“This picture of a homeless encampment was taken today at O’Hare @fly2ohare Terminal 1 baggage claim. Chicago needs better leadership,” they wrote.

A third person, who arrived at Terminal 3, said she had “never seen such a homeless problem” in the “50 years I have lived in Cook Co.”

“It’s not even that cold out! Also, aggresively (SIC) hit-up with ‘ya need a ride?’ in baggage. It was dystopian,” they wrote.

Jessica Dubuar with Haymarket Center, which serves the homeless at the airport, told CBS News that the numbers are increasing year to year.

In 2022, Haymarket encountered 618 new homeless people at the airport – up 53 percent from the 431 they saw a year earlier, according to the report.

Asked why the homeless are sleeping at O’Hare and not going to shelter, Dubuar said: “They’re full. The shelters are full.”

“A lot of folks don’t end up at the airport because that’s their goal — that is the last option they have,” she said.

Haymarket Center is funded by the Chicago Department of Aviation and the Department of Family Support Services.

“Our January at O’Hare was one of the busiest Januarys we ever had,” Dubuar told Block Club Chicago, a nonprofit news site. “We are seeing more individuals and more encounters [who are] new to our system.”

About 65,611 city residents experienced homelessness in 2020, according to a 2022 report from the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, Mary Tarullo, associate director of policy and strategy, told Block Club Chicago.

Monica Dillon, who runs The Northwest Side Homeless Outreach, said the city is “stretched thin” trying to deal with the growing problem.

“We need more social services and more dollars and money to work on homeless prevention, homeless outreach and shelter outreach,” she said.

One homeless man who spent a recent night at Terminal 2 described his plight in an interview with Block Club Chicago.

“I need to have surgery [because] my lung collapsed and then I got pneumonia,” the man, who identified himself as Shorty, told the outlet.

He said he is on disability benefits and hopes to undergo surgery soon.

Jessy Pearl, a Transportation Security Administration agent at O’Hare, said she has noticed an increase in the homeless population there since Delta Airlines moved out of Terminal 2 and into Terminal 5.

“There’s more homeless people — more activity is concentrated at Terminal 2, since there’s less passenger traffic,” Pearl told the Chicago Tribune.

Chicago recently received $60 million from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, part of a $315 million package of grants to combat homelessness, according to Block Club Chicago.

The money will go toward expanding placement services.

In a statement to CBS News, the Chicago Department of Aviation said homeless encampments at airports are a “common occurrence” during winter.

“The CDA is aware of the increasing population of unsheltered individuals at O’Hare International Airport. It’s a common occurrence at this airport and airports nationwide when temperatures drop in the winter months,” the statement read.

Meanwhile, the Department of Family and Support Services added people experiencing homelessness don’t always immediately accept help.

“Sometimes, individuals experiencing homelessness do not accept services and outreach teams have to engage them many times before trust is established and the clients are ready to accept assistance,” the department said.

“Outreach is not enforcement, and DFSS will continue to respond to community needs through trauma informed, strengths-based approaches,” it added.