Chicago Teachers Union Demands Public Schools Double as Homeless Shelters

Columbus Elementary School in Chicago on Jan. 25, 2021. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

A 142-page leaked set of demands by the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) reveals a plan for public school facilities to be used as shelters for homeless families.

The new union demands call for using schools as “sheltering places,” a move traditionally outside the purview of bargaining.

“The board, union, city of Chicago and partner community organizations shall identify functioning schools with separate entrances to be used as non-congregate temporary sheltering places for Chicago Public school families facing homelessness,” CTU contract demands stated.

“Such sheltering places shall have a night-time custodial team of at least two custodians, along with social service provider staff to consult with families and connect them with housing support and other services for which they may qualify.”

The proposal, which was first reported by Illinois Policy on May 2, demanded that authorities “undertake a facilities assessment process to identify schools with vacant, unused floods ... to be converted into dormitories for unaccompanied youth.”

As part of its demands, the CTU added that it would “partner with trade unions” to create a program that “builds affordable housing” and “green home renovations.”

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Demands by the CTU to convert public school buildings into homeless shelters were first floated in 2019 by Lori Lightfoot, then the mayor of Chicago.

Despite that Ms. Lightfoot’s proposal wasn’t implemented, other unions around the country latched on to the idea and began making similar demands, including in Boston, Los Angeles, and Oakland.

The Oakland Education Association’s contract included a memorandum instructing the city’s school district and the union to identify “possible locations that could be developed into housing for unhoused and housing insecure” students.

In Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former teachers union organizer, promised that it would be a top priority for his administration to find accommodations for the city’s homeless, with a particular focus on the more than 20,000 students in Chicago Public Schools he claims currently face housing instability.

“The people of Chicago voted for me because I said that I’m going to address homelessness,” Mr. Johnson told reporters in March.

However, the city is currently facing a fiscal crisis, making new funding for schools difficult to secure.

Earlier this year, the CTU contributed $400,000 to Mr. Johnson’s failed attempt to increase school funding through a real estate tax hike. During the campaign, the CTU received an ethics complaint for lobbying students and pulling them from class to vote. After the measure failed, Mr. Johnson vowed to continue his push to fill the coffers of city schools.

Other demands of the CTU include that boys’ bathrooms carry free menstrual products, that school employees take LGBT education classes, and a “$1,800 per semester stipend to every school to have a Climate Champion.”

“The Climate Champion will coordinate school-based climate justice initiatives“ and ”serve as a liaison to the school for district wide climate justice initiatives,” according to the document.

However, critics claim current demands from the CTU are only the latest stunts employed by officials in an attempt to prop up the nation’s failing public education system as increasing numbers of Americans continue opting out of public school. For more than a decade, the Chicago public school system has been hemorrhaging students—losing nearly 20 percent of total enrollment between 2013 and 2023—mirroring a nationwide trend that accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Census Bureau data showed that 11.1 percent of K–12 students were independently homeschooled in the fall of 2020, an increase from 5.4 percent that spring. Conversely, public school enrollment fell by 3 percent between 2019 and 2020, with many families withdrawing children from public education and signing them up for educational alternatives.

As schools reopened post-pandemic, public school enrollment did not rebound, remaining flat in the fall of the 2021–2022 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

State-level statistics for the 2022–2023 school year showed the downward trend continuing, as the drop in public school attendance led many districts to cut staff or even close schools.

While other factors have led to the decrease in public education, according to a 2023 study by Thomas S. Dee of Stanford, the switch to homeschooling accounted for 26 percent of the decrease of 1.2 million students enrolled at public schools nationwide for the 2021–2022 school year.

Illegal Immigrants

Further, much of the homelessness being experienced in Chicago can be attributed to a massive increase in illegal immigrants, many of whom arrived in the city without resources.

Chicago has maintained its status as a sanctuary city since 1985, when Mayor Harold Washington issued an executive order. The order became law in 2006 when city officials were directed to not ask about immigration status, disclose that information to federal authorities, or deny city services depending on citizenship status.

It has been estimated that the city is housing more than 30,000 illegal immigrants, spread out over 23 shelters throughout the city, with more continuing to arrive daily.

In total, an estimated 68,440 homeless Americans are living on the streets of Chicago, according to the most recent data from 2021—and in the past two years, that number has grown, according to the Chicago Coalition of the Homeless.

The thousands of new arrivals have filled up the city’s homeless shelters, with countless more sleeping on police station floors and staying at airports.

Pastor Corey Brooks, executive director of Project H.O.O.D, a Chicago-based nonprofit seeking to end violence through individual empowerment, told The Epoch Times that the city needs to reprioritize how it spends its limited resources and refocus on its own citizens.

“A lot of people are feeling like when we voice concerns about violence and economic issues, these city officials tell us there is no money available, but now that the migrants are here, they are finding millions and millions of dollars,” Mr. Brooks told The Epoch Times in an earlier interview.

“It’s a slap in the face.”