Melissa Farmer often walks her dog through Gompers Park on Chicago’s northwest side.
“This park is gorgeous. People don’t know about it,” she said, walking along a lagoon on a recent morning. “I want to keep my fingers crossed that people continue not to.”
In the last year, though, a homeless encampment moved in. In that time, Farmer said she has seen people steal bikes, sell drugs and burn fires. Now, she carries pepper spray. She has complained to police, the city’s parks department and her alderman.
“They’re like, ‘you’re basically stuck with them,’ which is infuriating,” Farmer said. “I don’t personally understand how we can’t say, like, ‘hey, you can’t live in the park.’”