The city of Elgin will look into installing surveillance cameras at the Lexington Inn & Suites, where it moved a group of homeless residents this week, after Elgin Math and Science Academy parents raised safety concerns. Elgin City Council members unanimously voted Wednesday night to direct city staff to explore the camera proposal in response to fears over the hotel’s close proximity to the charter school. Councilman Anthony Ortiz made the motion to ensure the council discussed the idea at a future meeting, he said. This week the city relocated about 40 people into rooms at the Lexington so that it could demolish and clear the makeshift homes people had built along the Fox River, near Route 31 and Kimball Street, in an area known at “tent city.” While the homeless encampment, now about 8 acres large, has been there for decades, safety issues for its residents became apparent after three fires in December and January — likely tied to homemade heating devices — burned swaths of the area. No one was injured but city officials decided the situation could not continue and have made plans to demolish the structures and clear the site. The homeless residents have been given rooms at the east side hotel on Dundee Avenue through April 1. That plan irked some parents, who were angered that EMSA was not notified of the action until after it was approved by the council despite the hotel being located directly across the street from the school. “This move is negligent,” parent Rebecca Bowman told the council. “Our children are going to have encounters (with the homeless residents). “We are not lacking compassion. We fundraised as a school for residents of tent city,” she said. “(Regardless of what the city does), there is an increased security risk for our children.” About 40 homeless residents living in Elgin’s “tent city” along the Fox River were relocated this week to rooms at the Lexington Inn & Suites on Dundee Avenue, where they will live until April 1. (Gloria Casas/The Courier-News) In addition to surveillance cameras, parents asked that the city erect temporary fencing at the entrance to the school — which sits about 450 feet off the road — and install additional lighting. EMSA has had issues in the past with homeless people setting up camps in the wooded area near the school, something parents said they fear could happen again once the residents are required to leave the hotel in the spring. Rose Martinez was the only council member to respond directly to the parents’ complaints, saying she found it personally “offensive to say that as a council that we would put students or anybody in harm’s way,” reminding parents that the council sold the school’s property to its founders for just a dollar. Beyond that, she said, she was saddened by “the lack of humanity, the lack of understanding from a group of parents,” Martinez said. Parents flooded the council with email, some of which called the homeless residents “pedophiles, sex offenders and trash,” she said. Elgin police have said no sex offenders will be staying at the hotel. “Rather than having compassion, some parents inundated us with these emails that are insulting us, list demands, and some even threatened lawsuits,” Martinez said. EMSA parent Marcia Rodriguez told the council that it was her job as a parent to raise questions, such as who is liable should something happen as a result of one of the residents, whether there would be increased police patrols at and near the school, if any of those staying at the hotel had been kicked out of other shelters, and what the city’s plan is for after April. “We want to make sure this is not just a Band-Aid,” Rodriguez said. “Everything we are asking for is valid. “It’s my job as a parent to be my daughter’s voice, to take care of her. I will never apologize for that, and I will never be shamed (about not) having compassion. I have a lot of compassion, but I’m a parent and that overrides everything.” Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.