I am a deeply concerned neighbor calling on the Parks District and the City of Chicago to call off the CPD-enforced removal of my unhoused neighbors from Legion Park on March 17th.

The City of Chicago and the Park District have scheduled a forced removal of the unhoused community living in an encampment in Legion Park on March 17th. So-called "encampment closures" serve only to displace residents in the same way as an encampment sweep—by disrupting community relationships, throwing away essential personal belongings and dismantling critical connections to support services.

The Park District and City have consistently targeted our neighbors in the park by destroying peoples' tents, mobility devices, and other vital belongings while violently displacing them throughout the park. These "removal operations" are a profound waste of our collective resources and they cause people to start from zero rather than connect them to the help they need to survive. These targeted actions have culminated into the scheduled removal of our most vulnerable neighbors from the public park, without any guarantees for stable housing. People will be forced to relocate, again, severed from their community connections and access to vital resources.

While some residents may be connected with caseworkers, no guarantee of actual housing placement has been issued by the Mayor, Chief Homelessness Officer Sendy Soto, the Department of Family and Support Services or the Park District. My unhoused neighbors need support in the form of affordable and public housing, mental health resources, harm reduction services and holistic care that does not criminalize them for living outside in public spaces should they have nowhere else to go, nor coerces them to choose between going to an overcrowded shelter or being forced to lose all of their possessions and start from nothing—or worse, be harmed or arrested from simply trying to survive.

The forced displacement of these, our most vulnerable neighbors, causes unnecessary trauma from the constant threat of removal, loss of belongings, and the stress of having to relocate.

We demand that the Park District and City of Chicago, and in turn Mayor Brandon Johnson, call off the March 17th "closure" of Legion Park and instead work with unhoused residents there to negotiate safe, livable conditions.