O’Hare ‘Out of Control’: Chicago Airport Gets Flooded by Homeless People, Staff Feel Unsafe

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks during a press conference outside of Wrigley Field in Chicago, Ill., on April 16, 2020. Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

Chicago O’Hare International Airport is facing a crisis as a large number of homeless people are reportedly settling in the facility, posing a safety risk to passengers, triggering a slew of complaints online, and putting pressure on the city’s mayor.

Thousands of homeless individuals are seeking shelter at the airport from the cold weather, a situation that Vonkisha Chatman, an employee at the O’Hare airport, says is “out of control.” Speaking to CBS, Chatman said that airport workers do not feel safe anymore. “They will come up behind you. This one man followed us last night,” said Catherine Thompson, another employee. “From the time we get here until the time we leave in the morning, they will be here.”

Thompson and Chatman work as custodians at the airport during overnight hours and claim to have been harassed by the homeless.

Even though managers warned them to call authorities in case of any issues, the police have told custodians that officers cannot intervene unless the homeless people physically touch them. “They (police) just tell us to be careful because it’s out of their hands,” Chatman said, “like they can’t do anything.”

The homeless crisis at the O’Hare Airport is putting pressure on Chicago’s Democrat Mayor Lori Lightfoot, with members from her own party aghast at the situation.

Pressure On Mayor

Raymond Lopez, member of the Democrat Party who serves as alderman of the 15th Ward in Chicago, claims that the O’Hare airport has been “overrun” by homeless people. O’Hare is the fourth largest airport in the United States.

“Every night, two to three hundred homeless individuals come off public transportation and set up encampments here in baggage claim and throughout all five terminals. All the while, the mayor’s voice is blasting from overhead welcoming any one of the 65,000 daily visitors here in this indoor outhouse that we call O’Hare airport,” he said in an interview with Fox News.

The homeless people are not only urinating in the hallways but are also taking baths in the toilets and “making a mockery of what Chicago is,” Lopez stated.

Though Lopez admitted that homelessness is an issue that needs to be addressed, he insisted that the solution does not lie in making the O’Hare airport a “homeless shelter for hundreds of people on a daily basis.” And this is happening while Chicago is trying to promote tourism and attract businesses, he noted.

Visitors to the airport are getting “greeted by hundreds of homeless who have mental health issues, maybe armed, maybe not even be clothed. That’s not something that institutes a lot of confidence in our mayor, in our city. And clearly, she doesn’t care because she is 17 miles away from it.”

In an interview with the New York Post, Republican political operative Dan Proft called the crisis at the O’Hare airport part of the “ongoing disintegration” of Chicago.

“[Lightfoot] holds the primary responsibility … She pounds her fists at a podium and says ‘We’re gonna do this and we’re gonna do that’ for public safety—and it doesn’t get done,” Proft said.

Twitter Complaints

Twitter has seen a flood of complaints from people shocked at the condition of the O’Hare airport. “@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. This is the first impression people get when they land in this city,” said Chicago resident Natasha Patel in a Feb. 6 tweet.

“I grew up in Chicago my whole life and I was terrified at the airport yesterday when a man approached my husband and I flailing his hands in our faces, I am creating awareness and YES it’s a bad impression on the city by people who travel here from all over the world.”

“Chicago’s O'Hare Airport is a squalid homeless encampment. But the Lightfoot regime won’t change a thing: ‘Outreach is not enforcement and [our department] will continue to respond to community needs through trauma-informed, strengths-based approaches,’” journalist Miranda Devine said in a Feb. 15 tweet.

“Mayor Lightfoot’s Chicago, America. A once beautiful city, Chicago has become a boarded up, crime infested, and filthy city under Lightfoot’s Progressivism. SMH. Filthy homeless encampment is set up INSIDE Chicago’s O'Hare Airport,” Republican Jack Lombardi II said in a Feb. 16 tweet.

Another individual, from Barrington, Illinois, called for “better leadership” while posting a picture of a homeless encampment at O’Hare airport Terminal 1 baggage claim.

“We appreciate your feedback. Safety, security, and an optimal passenger experience is top priority for the CDA, and we have forwarded your message along to our security team. We apologize for any inconvenience caused and hope your next visit to ORD is more enjoyable,” the O’Hare International Airport (ORD) said in a Feb. 14 tweet while responding to the person from Barrington.