CPS "Safe Passage" workers have continued to be paid, even though schools are closed and students are home. | CPS
CPS "Safe Passage" workers have continued to be paid, even though schools are closed and students are home. | CPS
Adults paid to stand on street corners around Chicago schools to guarantee “safe passage” for students walking to them have already received $4.3 million this year-- even while those schools have been closed, and their students at home.
That’s according to an analysis of current 2021 CPS vendor payments by Chicago City Wire. The payments represent a percentage of what the 19 Chicago non-profits who operate CPS’ “Safe Passage” program will receive from city taxpayers this 2020-21 school year, which ends June 30.
In 2019-20, which was cut three months short, the vendors collected $9.8 million, or about 40 percent of the $24.7 million they received in 2018-19.
Chicago’s Safe Passage program was conceived 2009 by Mayor Richard M. Daley after a 16-year-old student, Derrion Albert, was beaten to death on his way home from Fenger High School on the far South Side. It launched in 2013.
The program pays non-profits who pay an unconfirmed number of adult civilians to wear yellow vests and work two, 2.5 hour shifts standing on street corners surrounding 159 CPS schools in the city’s most dangerous neighborhoods.
The non-profits include Ucan, a youth home and “therapeutic day school” based at 3605 W. Fillmore in Homan Square, on the West Side. It received nearly one-fourth of the total spent, or $1.14 million this year. Ucan is the largest Safe Passage vendor, having collected $17.7 million from Chicago taxpayers over the past four school years.
Another Safe Passage non-profit is St. Sabina Catholic parish, 1210 W. 78th Street in Auburn-Gresham neighborhood on the South Side. Its pastor, Fr. Michael Pfleger, was accused of sexual abuse of minors in January and is currently under investigation by the Chicago Catholic Archdiocese. It has received $1.63 million over the past four years.
AME3, located at 3620 W. Warren Blvd., in Chicago’s Garfield Park on the West Side, has received $5.22 million in Safe Passage funding since 2017. The Internal Revenue Service revoked its non-profit status in Aug. 2020 for failure to file a required Form-990 report for three consecutive years.
According to its 2016 990 filing, the last available, AME3’s “mission is to provide employment opportunities, vocational training and mentoring for adults and youth in underserved urban areas.”
In 2016, AME3 reported expenses of $1,162,406 and taxpayer grants of $1,281,767 for its work on the Safe Passage program. Executive Director Harold J. Davis, 2240 W. Warren Blvd., reported a salary of $103,800 for his work for AME3. Chief Operating Officer Monica Brown, who lives with Davis, reported $76,800 in compensation.
AME3 received a PPP loan of $331,595 in April 2020, claiming it would use the money to protect 157 jobs.
The Alliance for Community Peace, 509 W. Elm St., has received $3.6 million in Safe Passage funding since 2017. Executive Director Dr. Walter B. Johnson, Jr. and Chief Operating Officer Phyliss D. Harrell are each paid $104,250 in salary, according to its 2019 990, which lists $1.63 million in government grants as its primary revenue.
The organization received a $92,196 PPP loan in May 2020, claiming it would use the money to protect seven jobs.
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Chicago "Safe Passage" still being spent, even with schools closed
| Vendor | 2020-21 | 2019-20 | 2018-19 | 2017-18 |
| Ucan | $ 1,114,152 | $ 2,529,418 | $ 6,807,476 | $ 7,291,906 |
| Westside Health Authority | $ 540,095 | $ 257,570 | $ 852,128 | $ 879,510 |
| Enlace Chicago | $ 411,946 | $ 543,545 | $ 1,152,347 | $ 748,676 |
| Alliance for Community Peace | $ 315,901 | $ 657,165 | $ 1,347,605 | $ 1,361,205 |
| AME3, NFP | $ 272,655 | $ 732,853 | $ 2,358,442 | $ 1,860,773 |
| Brighton Park Neighborhood Council | $ 266,697 | $ 775,476 | $ 705,076 | $ 661,747 |
| Black United Fund of Illinois | $ 248,570 | $ 598,298 | $ 1,766,993 | $ 1,792,087 |
| SGA Youth & Family Service | $ 241,870 | $ 387,483 | $ 1,138,527 | $ 1,154,876 |
| A Knock At Midnight | $ 229,634 | $ 556,989 | $ 1,007,527 | $ 1,014,218 |
| Target Area Dev Corp. | $ 110,612 | $ 422,339 | $ 884,659 | $ 1,050,153 |
| Puerto Rican Cultural Center 2 | $ 106,764 | $ 337,635 | $ 934,386 | $ 929,759 |
| St. Sabina's Parish | $ 103,605 | $ 261,842 | $ 629,059 | $ 637,132 |
| Leave No Veteran Behind | $ 101,370 | $ 276,735 | $ 828,183 | $ 764,258 |
| Teamwork Englewood | $ 69,618 | $ 201,118 | $ 480,944 | $ 485,529 |
| Saving our Sons Ministries | $ 62,217 | $ 156,876 | $ 578,592 | $ 511,188 |
| Centers for New Horizons, Inc. | $ 44,726 | $ 130,411 | $ 293,299 | $ 262,938 |
| Bright Star Community Outreach, Inc. | $ 43,439 | $ 363,069 | $ 708,135 | $ 635,746 |
| Claretian Associates, Inc. | $ 20,437 | $ 280,290 | $ 759,272 | $ 617,221 |
| Network of Woodlawn | $ 14,942 | $ 269,442 | $ 797,165 | $ 779,375 |
| The Black Star Project | $ 4,043 | $ 125,320 | ||
| Ebenezer Community | $ 115,595 | $ 656,997 | $ 821,456 | |
| TOTALS | $ 4,319,250 | $ 9,854,147 | $ 24,690,855 | $ 24,385,073 |
Source: Chicago Public Schools
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