Residents near a homeless encampment at a Northwest Side park were told Monday that the city likely won't move the camp until next year at the earliest. Hundreds of people showed up at a community meeting led by Sendy Soto, Mayor Brandon Johnson's chief homelessness officer, to learn more about options for a tent city at Gompers Park on the Northwest Side.Some were disappointed to hear city officials confirm that the tent city is not likely to be moved anytime soon. "It was all a bunch of rhetoric," said Pat Newman, who has lived in the community for 54 years. "I feel like I just wasted an hour of my life. But what are you going to do?"Gompers is a more than 40-acre greenspace with recreation, a bird sanctuary, wetlands and trails at West Foster Avenue and North Pulaski Road. Some nearby residents are demanding that more than 25 tents be removed from the park and that the unhoused people living in them be relocated. A man heckling residents seeking to have homeless people removed from Gompers Park was removed from Monday’s hearing by police.Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times The city says there is no immediate place for the tent inhabitants to go and there's no money to move them. Related Tent camp on the Northwest Side is at the center of a battle over homelessness Neighbors have been calling on Johnson and Ald. Samantha Nugent (39th) to accelerate plans to move homeless occupants from the park. "Over the past two years, an encampment has grown to over 25 tents, severely limiting the safe use of the park by residents, families and children while also endangering the wetlands and wildlife," neighbors wrote in a letter to Johnson, Nugent and other city officials dated Sept. 10.The letter was sent by a group calling itself Restore Gompers Park, which says it has more than 300 members.The group said it never received a response from Johnson. Nugent has said the city should use a tool known as an "accelerated moving event" to remove the homeless people from Gompers.City officials told the Sun-Times last week that they have spent $70 million in federal money on programs related to homelessness, and "based on funding availability" there is no plan for a rapid response to the Gompers situation this year. Some residents have said the tent dwellers have shown no interest in leaving the park. However, three encampment occupants last week told the Sun-Times that they were open to finding subsidized housing. Not all residents agree with the campaign to quickly expel the unhoused at Gompers.Keith Couture, a resident and organizer with 39th Ward Neighbors United, said Northwest Side residents need to recognize that homelessness has exploded in Chicago and long-term fixes need to be put in place. Couture's organization supported Johnson's Bring Chicago Home initiative that would have raised the real estate transfer tax on high-end property transactions to generate an estimated $100 million in annual revenue to combat homelessness, for instance.“No. 1, we think everyone deserves housing,” Couture said in an interview with the Sun-Times. “We also think regardless — if you have housing or not — you’re still our neighbors.”However, when some residents at the meeting spoke in favor of showing compassion to the unhoused people at Gompers, they were showered with boos.The meeting was held at the Salvation Army Mayfair Community Church, 5020 N. Pulaski Road.Contributing: Elvia Malagón and Lauren FitzPatrick