Removal of Gompers Park encampment delayed to next month, public safety concerns persist​on February 14, 2025 at 5:49 am

CHICAGO (WLS) — The clearing of a Northwest Side homeless encampment has been delayed to next month.

The city of Chicago had originally planned to clear out the Gompers Park encampment this month as the community has expressed safety concerns for months.

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It may be a little early to be thinking about baseball, but a North Side Little League Association already is, with safety being a new concern this year. The issue is the homeless encampment in Gompers Park that has become a public safety trouble spot.

A number of tents for the unhoused line Foster Avenue at Gompers Park, and since people began moving in last fall, community concerns have been growing.

On a sunny and cold day Thursday, tents for people who are unhoused sat perched on the hill overlooking the little league field at Gompers Park. The president of the athletic association there, which hosted more than 600 baseball and softball games last year, has been hearing a lot concerns from parents worried about letting their kids play here.

“Risk factors that involved drug paraphernalia, known drug use,” Gompers Park Athletic Association President Ryan Johnson said. “There was a death in the park a few months ago because of drug overdose, known prostitution, drug paraphernalia on the ground.”

And that’s not all. Volunteers also found a knife in the park. There have also been numerous fires there, including one that burned up a tent and required police and fire response February 5.

“The fire department has been called out over 35 times in the last year,” 39th Ward Ald. Samantha Nugent. “We had three fires within six days last week. And we also had our second pit bull attack, an unleashed pit bull attacking attacking dogs in the park.”

Video provided to ABC7 captured one of those incidents.

On February 24, the city was supposed to hold an accelerated moving event to encourage unhoused people to move to shelters, but that got pushed back to March 5. The hope is that it won’t be further delayed.

“I’ve got to take the park district at their word,” Ald. Nugent said. “They committed to me that they’re going to have this, this land cleaned up by April 1, and I’m going to take them at their word, and hopefully they’re going to deliver.”

If anyone who is unhoused returns to the park this upcoming season, Johnson said his teams will have to play ball at another park, something they hope they don’t have to do.

“What we do need is reassurance that once the tents are hopefully reload relocated by the accelerated moving event, that you know, they won’t return,” Johnson said.