Elgin to continue housing Tent City residents at Lexington Inn until fall

Elgin will continue housing former residents of the Tent City homeless encampment at the Lexington Inn & Suites through the fall while the city looks for a permanent housing solution.

City Manager Rick Kozal told city council members Wednesday night that upcoming grant funding from the state would allow Elgin to continue housing the 39 people staying at the hotel without any further cost to the city.

“We have enough resources to continue with the 39 residents, roughly, until the end of September, early October,” Kozal said.

In December, Elgin allocated $425,000 to move Tent City residents to 50 rooms at the hotel for $65 per day for each room.

The move followed a series of fires at the roughly 8-acre site along the west side of the Fox River that had served as a homeless encampment for 20 to 30 years.

Forty-two residents moved to the hotel in late January. However, Kozal said three have been removed for violating rules.

The extension of the stay will come with a change in security.

The Elgin Police Department has provided around-the-clock security at the hotel for the past 10 weeks at an average monthly cost of about $74,000.

Elgin Police Chief Ana Lalley said police intervention mostly has been connected to trespassing citations and that there have been no reported incidents of violence involving any program participants.

On Wednesday, the council granted preliminary approval to contract with Andy Frain Security for overnight coverage from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. at an estimated cost of $9,000 per month.

Services will include room checks for unauthorized guests when quiet hours begin at 8 p.m., with police responding to incidents during daytime hours when requested by the on-site hotel management.

According to Kozal, cleanup and remediation at the former encampment by ATI Restoration have involved the removal of 233 tons of debris so far and are on schedule for completion by the end of the month.

Kozal said the final cost is expected to be around $2 million, $500,000 less than the city had capped for the project’s budget.

Fencing around the property should be completed by April 21. Signage at the property indicates that no trespassing is allowed and that police will remove anyone attempting to set up camp there.

Though only 39 of the budgeted 50 rooms are being used, Kozal said they wouldn’t entertain an earlier consideration to offering shelter at the hotel to other homeless residents of Elgin, citing the lack of a “definitive, permanent solution” nor full-time staff to manage more people.

“We made the determination to just focus on the relocation of the Tent City individuals rather than creating additional density there,” he said. “So I unfortunately don’t have an immediate solution for that.”

https://www.dailyherald.com/20250410/news/elgin-to-continue-housing-tent-city-residents-at-lexington-inn-until-fall/