Duggan calls for review of Detroit's homeless services after children living in van froze to death in Greektown garage

Officials say the family -- five kids and two adults -- had previously reached out to the city for help.
Parking garage at Hollywood Casino at Greektown in Detroit
Parking garage at Hollywood Casino at Greektown in Detroit, where two children are believed to have frozen to death on Monday. Photo credit © Kimberly P. Mitchell / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

DETROIT (WWJ) — Police and city officials in Detroit are working to better provide resources for homeless people in the city after two young children are believed to have froze to death while living in a van with their family.

Speaking at a press conference Tuesday, officials said a total of five children, ranging in age from 2-13, and two adults — the kids’ mother and grandmother — had been living in a van and sleeping in various casino parking lots.

On Monday the family 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 was not breathing, officials said.

The mother called 911 and a family friend left to take him to the hospital. Interim Police Chief Todd Bettison 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 girl was also not breathing and she called the family friend, who came back and took her to the hospital as well, according to Bettison.

Both children were pronounced dead at the hospital. While their cause of death has not officially been determined, Detroit police officials believe they froze to death.

The other three children were also evaluated by medical personnel and are now in the care of other family members, officials said Tuesday. Authorities have not released the names of any of the family members.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan on Tuesday called this “a terrible day in the city of Detroit,” noting the city needs to make improvements to its systems that help unsheltered and homeless people stay warm in the winter months.

“The heartbreaking part of this is there were shelter beds available just a few miles away from where the family pulled in to that Greektown structure. But it brings home the point that having services available doesn’t mean very much if the residents who need them don’t know how to access them,” Duggan said.

The mayor said after learning that police commanders were frustrated last winter that they were often turned away when bringing homeless people to shelters, the city “dramatically changed things” this winter by adding 400 shelter beds across the city and 110 “drop-in” shelter beds.

While a shelter may be full, a drop-in center will take an individual any time of the evening and never turn anybody away, Duggan said.

Duggan said at Tuesday’s press conference the family involved in Monday’s tragedy had previously gotten in touch with the city’s homeless response team on Nov. 25, 2024. They said they had been living with a family and they were no longer going to be able to keep living with that family and needed a place to go, Duggan said.

Ultimately during that conversation, he said, there was no resolution on where they would go.

“One of the things that’s important when you call our homeless services folks, is that if it’s an emergency situation, we send out one of these outreach workers,” Duggan said, noting it’s easier for them to assess the situation and determine what the family needs.

“For whatever reason, this wasn’t deemed an emergency that caused an outreach worker to visit the family,” Duggan said. “Three weeks later we opened the family drop-in center on Dec. 16. It was exactly the type of situation we opened it for and we were opening it to be ahead of the worst temperatures of the winter.”

Duggan said “as far as we’ve been able to determine,” the family never called back to follow up for service. But he also said the city’s homeless outreach staff also never followed up to find out if their situation had been resolved or to indicate that a room was available.

“So we have to make sure that we do everything possible to make sure that this doesn’t happen again,” Duggan said. “And I’m not trying to talk about an individual employee, I’m talking about the system as a whole. Are we doing everything to make sure people in this city know how to access this critical care?”

Duggan said he has asked Deputy Mayor Melia Howard and Julie Schneider, director of the Housing & Revitalization Department, to review and address the system and report back in two weeks.

Not only in regards to this family’s specific case, but also to conduct a review of the call center and housing specialists to determine what the city can do better.

For those in need of help finding shelter, especially in the colder months, the Detroit Housing Services Resource HelpLine is available at 866-313-2520 every day until 6 p.m. After hours, Duggan and other officials say you should go to the nearest Detroit Police Department precinct.

Featured Image Photo Credit: © Kimberly P. Mitchell / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images