Detroit mom called city for help before 2 kids froze in casino parking garage

A Detroit mother reached out to the city’s homeless response team at least three times, the most recent in November, nearly three months before two of her children appear to have frozen to death on Monday while they slept in a van in a downtown casino parking structure.

“In the course of that (November) conversation, there was no resolution reached on where they would go,” Mayor Mike Duggan said during a Tuesday news conference.

During that call, the mother told a staffer with the homeless response team that she was staying with family but wouldn’t be able to stay there much longer, he said.

Just a few miles from the Hollywood Casino in Greektown, where the mother parked the van on Monday, family beds were available at a shelter, Duggan said. The family did not call the city’s homeless response team back after that November call and the city never followed up with the family after the call, he said.

“For whatever reason, this wasn’t deemed an emergency,” Duggan said.

Duggan added the family had called the city’s homeless response team two other times, once in the summer and a time “in the previous year.”

The mother also reportedly called shelters multiple times prior to Monday’s tragedy but was told they were full, according to Detroit Board of Police Commissioner Tamara Liberty Smith, who is also the director of Detroit Power Detroit Community Outreach, a transitional housing service the 29-year-old mother was referred to on Monday evening after police responded.

Smith said the mother is lost without her children. She witnessed the mother ask God why he didn’t take her instead.

The 9-year-old who died was the mother’s oldest child, Smith said.

“They’re a family that’s trying. They didn’t want to abandon each other,” Smith said. “They weren’t expecting a tragedy like this.”

Smith said the mother told her that her kids were in Ecorse schools. The grandmother works at a Popeyes location, Smith said, and the mother was scheduled to start an auto-related job in Flint on Wednesday.

It’s a tragedy that must make the city rethink everything it’s doing to combat homelessness, Duggan said.

He asked for an investigation by Deputy Mayor Melia Howard and the city’s housing department that would determine what went wrong and what is needed to make sure nothing like this happens again. That report is due in two weeks.

“The full strength of this administration is behind this effort,” Howard said.

“No parent, no family, no mother should ever have to endure such hardship and heartbreak. … As Detroiters, I know that we will lift them up in our hearts.”

The mother, her four children, their grandmother and the grandmother’s child, were living in the van, according to Detroit police. They were evicted from an apartment on the east side, then lived with family until November, when the mother called the city’s homeless response team, said Capt. Nathan Duda.

Police said the mother pulled a van into the Hollywood Casino at Greektown parking garage at about 1 a.m., drove up to the ninth floor, and parked.

But the car stopped running in the middle of the night due to some sort of mechanical error, so the mother called a family friend to come help, Interim Police Chief Todd Bettison said on Tuesday. The family friend was there when, shortly after noon on Monday, the mother noticed one of her children, a 9-year-old boy, was not breathing and called police.

The family friend took the child to the hospital. But then police said the children’s grandmother reported that another child, a 2-year-old girl, was also not breathing. The friend returned to the parking structure to take the girl to the hospital.

Both children died. Cause of death hasn’t yet been confirmed by the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office, but police said it appears the children froze to death.

The temperature early Monday was in the low- to mid-teens.

The three surviving children were hospitalized and are in stable condition, police said.

Bettison said police are investigating, but that doesn’t mean there will be criminal charges against anyone in the tragedy. He said his department will present the facts to Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, who will decide whether charges are appropriate.

Hollywood Casino referred calls to Detroit police and said through spokesperson Jason Brown they would not be providing a statement at this time.

Duggan said 400 more shelter beds and additional 100 beds for drop-in emergencies were added in Detroit this winter. Homeless response teams were also made available 24/7. But he wants the city to ramp up its response when children are experiencing homelessness by requiring immediate on-site visits, and he said the city needs to do better communicating resources to those who need it the most.

The New McFall Brothers Funeral Home in Detroit has donated its services for the family to cover funeral costs, said the Rev. Julius Baker, community relations liaison.

“We hope that by stepping in to assist, we can not only bring some comfort to this family but also inspire others to join in efforts to protect and support those in need,” Baker said in a news release.

Shelter director says system is ‘broken’

The current referral system to get into homeless shelters — the Coordinated Assessment Model or CAM— has loopholes and is “broken,” according to Chad Audi, president and CEO of Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries, which runs shelters and warming centers.

The system lacks 24/7 help, and people are placed in a queue. It can take anywhere from 10 to 15 days to get into a shelter, according to what Audi has heard from clients. For people facing homelessness in Detroit, Hamtramck and Highland Park, CAM is the primary way to access shelter and other housing help.

CAM, before a management handover, received sharp criticism from users about their experience using the system. Users had said they faced long wait times and that CAM failed to follow up. The referral system had changed the way it places people in shelters last year, based on need and not on a first-come, first-served basis, to make it easier for people to get help and operators had sought to make improvements.

Audi called for more changes, such as a 24/7 call center with transportation services.

“A homeless person needs a quick answer. They’re in an emergency. It’s like when you’re going to the emergency room in the hospital, you can’t go tell a person, ‘Oh, OK, well, we’ll see you later,’ ” he said.

The Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries has about 650 beds across its shelters and warming centers and is at full capacity, but the nonprofit has about 50 beds on a given day for emergencies, Audi said. The Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries looked through its records and it doesn’t appear that the family called his organization, he said.

Those who need additional help can call the Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries at 313-993-4700.

Frigid temperatures can be deadly for people experiencing homelessness and out on the streets. In metro Detroit, and across the country, homelessness has been on the rise.

Last year, there were 1,725 people facing homelessness, both sheltered and unsheltered, in Detroit, Hamtramck and Highland Park — a 16% increase from the year before, according to a one-night count conducted in January by the Detroit Continuum of Care, the Homeless Action Network of Detroit and the city of Detroit. Among those tallied, 728 were families. About 300 people, including 28 families, were unsheltered, meaning they were sleeping in places not typically meant for human habitation.

Across the country, the number of people experiencing homelessness on one night last year set a record high, according to a U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development report to Congress. Roughly 23 out of every 10,000 people in the U.S. faced homelessness, likely because of a lack of affordable housing and rising inflation, among other reasons, HUD said. Nearly 150,000 children were unhoused on that single night — a 33% increase from 2023. The one-night tally is likely an undercount of the homeless population.

Homelessness, housing experts have said, is not a monolith. It has multiple root causes, from mental health challenges and substance abuse to evictions and affordability hurdles.

Where to find resources for shelters, warming centers

Warming centers and respite locations are available across metro Detroit. Wintertime and frigid conditions can be fatal for those who are homeless and living out on the streets.

Detroit: To get into shelters and warming centers, families and individuals must call the Coordinated Assessment Model, or CAM — the main way for people facing homelessness in Detroit, Hamtramck and Highland Park to access housing help. To reach CAM, those in need of shelter can call at 313-305-0311, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, according to its website.

People can also go to an in-person CAM site at the following locations:

• Cass Community Social Services: 11850 Woodrow Wilson St., 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday

• NOAH at Central: 23 E. Adams Ave. (second floor), 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday

Outside of CAM’s hours, people experiencing homelessness can go to three warming centers. Space is limited, according to CAM Detroit.

• Cass Community Social Services (families and single women): 1534 Webb St.

• Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries (families and single women): 12900 W. Chicago

• Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries (single men): 3535 Third Ave.

For more information, go to camdetroit.org.

Detroit recreation centers and public libraries are available during regular operating hours. The Detroit Public Library main library in Midtown is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday; noon to 8 p.m., Tuesday and Wednesday and 1-5 p.m. Sunday. For neighborhood library branch hours, go to detroitpubliclibrary.org. For a list of city of Detroit recreation centers and when they are open, go to https://camdetroit.org/code-blue/.

Detroiters who are facing homelessness or housing insecurity can also call the city of Detroit’s Housing Resource HelpLine at 866-313-2520. The hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 9 a.m. to noon Saturday. Outside of the helpline’s hours, city officials urged residents to go to the nearest police precinct.

Wayne County: For a roundup of warming centers, go to https://bit.ly/WayneCountyWarmingCenters.

Macomb County: For a list of warming centers in Macomb County and resources for those facing homelessness, go to bit.ly/MacombCountyWarmingCenters and download the list. The list was updated in November 2024.

Oakland County: For a map of available warming centers, go to bit.ly/3CjF2Zi.

To find an emergency shelter and other resources by ZIP code, call the Michigan 211 service or go to mi211.org/.

This story was updated to add new information and to correct an inaccuracy from the Detroit Police Department.

Andrea Sahouri covers criminal justice for the Detroit Free Press. Contact her at asahouri@freepress.com or on X: @andreamsahouri. 

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit mom asked for help before kids froze in casino parking garage