
DETROIT (WWJ) — More than two weeks after two children died while living with their family in a van in Detroit, city officials have rolled out a new plan to improve their emergency homelessness response system.
At a press conference Thursday Mayor Mike Duggan detailed a seven-point plan designed to prevent that type of situation from happening again.
On Feb. 10, a mother, grandmother and five children had been on the ninth floor of the garage attached to the Hollywood Casino at Greektown for “many hours” when the mother noticed her 9-year-old son, Darnell Curry, was not breathing, officials said.
The mother called 911 and a family friend left to take him to the hospital. Officials said the family friend was already on-site helping the family figure out why the vehicle stopped running in the middle of the night, leading to even more frigid temperatures inside the van.
While they were on the way to the hospital, the children’s grandmother then noticed the 2-year-old daughter, Amilia Curry, was also not breathing and she called the family friend, who came back and took her to the hospital as well.
Both children were pronounced dead at the hospital, while the other three children were also evaluated by medical personnel.
A day after their deaths, Duggan called for a two-week review of the city’s handling of the Williams-Curry family’s case — as they had reached out for help from the city on multiple occasions — as well as the city’s homeless response system as a whole.
Speaking Thursday, Duggan said the city is implementing the seven following steps to help get unsheltered people the help they need:
• 1. Require site visits for all families with minor children.
• 2. Give special attention to finding families in vehicles.
• 3. Expand HelpLine (866-313-2520) to 24 hours.
• 4. Double the number of drop-in beds.
• 5. Expand night outreach teams.
• 6. Continue the successful use of police precincts as havens for safety and referrals.
• 7. Expand street outreach and education.
Among the most important parts of the plan, Duggan says it’s crucial for outreach workers with the Coordinated Assessment Model (CAM) system to have face-to-face conversations with those in need, especially when children are involved.
“You cannot, when you’re just dealing with phone calls, understand how close somebody is to being out; do they have a family who’s going to help them or not? We need to have those outreach workers on-site and meeting those families. And going forward, we will require that site visit,” Duggan said.
Also moving forward, at the direction of new Police Chief Todd Bettison, DPD’s Unsheltered Team will pay special attention to finding families in vehicles, as will the outreach teams.
“It was not a conscious effort to seek out vehicles and see if folks were living inside. But what we have learned in the last two weeks is, we have other families out there living in vehicles and we’ve already responded to a number of them,” Duggan said. “But looking for families in vehicles will now be a focus of the police department.”
Duggan said the city’s also going to expand the number of “drop-in” shelter beds from 110 to 220 and there will now be more outreach teams on duty at night that will help unsheltered people get there.
While the mayor said media outlets “extensively covered” the December opening of the city’s immediate shelter centers, those most in need of shelter weren’t being reached.
“That is not where people who need the service are getting their information,” Duggan said, noting information about how to get help will be placed in gas stations, bus stops and other public locations. He said the city will “do a much more intensive job of making sure that nobody again can be unaware of the services that this city has made available.”
Duggan noted Thursday that the mother of the children who froze to death previously made calls to the city in search of help in December of 2023, again in June and July of 2024, and one more time last November.
On the last call, the woman said the family was living in temporary housing with a friend, but would have to leave soon.
“I asked the question (the first time) why this wasn’t classified as an emergency, but as you look at the records, at the time of the call, the call take worker put them in the class of somebody that was still housed, but did indicate that they expected to be unhoused within 14 days and did not send one of our outreach workers out to assess the situation,” Duggan said.
“What we now know is that the family was sleeping in a van in casino parking structures. Nobody from the homeless team ever reached out again to inquire as to their status; none of our police officers or outreach workers ran across the Williams-Curry family, but of course, they were not going through parking structures,” he said.
Duggan said the family never called back and they were “not reached back out to” and that’s something the city is hoping never happens again under the new plan.
More information on the city's homeless response plan can be found on the city's website. Those in need of housing assistance can call the HelpLine 24 hours a day at 866-313-2520.
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