Migrants in Chicago are on edge as evictions from temporary shelters loom

CHICAGO — Maria Cinfuentes stood outside Chicago’s largest migrant shelter on a windy morning last week, rubbing her cold hands together and worrying about her future.

She learned last week that her stay at the shelter, the only home she’s known since arriving in the United States from Venezuela in December, will come to an end next month. But she has no idea where she’ll go next.

“I don’t have a job. My husband doesn’t have a job,” the 30-year-old mother of three told NBC News in Spanish. “I don’t know anyone here. How am I going to pay rent?”

More than 13,000 migrants like Cinfuentes are under pressure to find homes and work before they are mass-evicted from city-operated shelters to conserve the budget and make room for newcomers.