Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot says the city is taking steps to remove homeless people who have been sleeping in O’Hare International Airport, calling their presence a risk to security.
Lightfoot on Thursday responded to complaints from Council Council Alderman Raymond Lopez, frequent Lightfoot critic, about the homeless situation at the airport.
“We have taken and will continue to take the steps that are necessary to move people out of the airports,” Lightfoot told reporters.
“We absolutely fundamentally cannot have people sleeping in our airports who are homeless. That is unacceptable,” she said. “We are going to continue, within the bounds of the law, to do what is necessary to provide those folks with support but elsewhere. They can’t be in our airports.”
The issue came to the fore when Lopez spoke with Tucker Carlson on a Fox News segment earlier in the week, and by Friday, homeless people sheltering in the airport were mostly gone, WBBM-TV reported.
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The situation has caused backlash from all sides as critics of Lightfoot – who is currently facing a tough reelection bid – have said she has not gone far enough to combat homelessness in Chicago, while others demanded more humane treatment for those who had sheltered at the airport.
