Daily Herald opinion: Plans to clear homeless encampment in Elgin must address what comes next

For decades, a homeless encampment in Elgin has occupied a stretch of land along the Fox River. In 2025, the area dubbed “Tent City” will be no more.

On Dec. 18, the Elgin City Council unanimously agreed to offer people living there hotel rooms for the winter. The transition is expected to begin around Jan. 20.

Then, the 8-acre site — which runs from the Fox River Water Reclamation District treatment facility to near Kimball Street — will be cleared of whatever remains in a remediation project expected to take two to four months at a cost of over $2 million. The project involves creating a path to reach the hard-to-access site and the removal of trees.

After that?

“There will be zero tolerance for encampments following the work that’s necessary to provide the relocation and remediation at Tent City,” City Manager Rick Kozal said.

The city’s decision comes months after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing municipalities to ban people from camping and sleeping in public places.

While costly, remediation — coupled with plans to address both short- and long-term solutions for the homeless — is the best way to address an area where safety has been a concern.

Elgin’s actions follow two December fires that posed serious threats to the people who live there and the community at large. The first fire was on Dec. 4. The next followed just over a week later. Officials suspect both were sparked by makeshift heating devices using combustible materials.

While no residents or firefighters were injured, structures were destroyed and a dog was killed. And the outcome could have been much worse, since the area is hard to reach, and fires there are difficult to fight.

While the area is cleared, city officials have allocated up to $425,000 to pay for hotel rooms for four months at the Lexington Inn & Suites. People can move elsewhere on their own or be transported to the hotel. Anyone who refuses to leave will be considered trespassing.

Providing temporary shelter is essential. Keeping people safe this winter — not to mention sheltered and warm — is clearly the right call. But what will happen once spring arrives? If those living in hotels over the next few months can’t return to the encampment, where will they go?

Officials, partnering with social service agencies, have a responsibility to answer those questions quickly and humanely.

Long-term solutions for a situation that Elgin has struggled with for years will be challenging. But as the tents come down and remediation work begins, planning for next steps must be a priority.

Solutions have been discussed in the past, and the city allocated nearly $1 million in 2023 for the establishment of temporary individual shelters. The effort was abandoned, but some of that money will help pay for hotel rooms.

Assistant City Manager Karina Nava said the city has been working with social support agencies and the faith community to offer services to residents of Tent City.

“These people have been through a lot, they’re in a very vulnerable state, and we want to help them as much as possible,” she said. “It’s time to act.”

It’s also time to bring those in the Elgin community together to seek solutions — for now and for the future.