Two kids apparently freeze to death in Detroit parking garage after eviction
Two kids apparently freeze to death in Detroit parking garage after eviction
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U.S. homelessness hits record high in 2024
Homelessness in the United States hit the highest level on record in 2024.
Two children sleeping inside a van in a Detroit casino parking garage appear to have frozen to death after temperatures plummeted, according to city officials.
"No parent, no family, no mother should ever have to endure such hardship and heartbreak," Deputy Mayor Melia Howard said Tuesday. "As Detroiters, I know that we will lift them up in our hearts."
Police said a mother, her five kids and their grandmother had been living in the van since being evicted from their apartment last year. Investigators say the mother, whose name was not released, parked the van inside the Hollywood Casino parking garage about 1 a.m. Monday as temperatures fell well below freezing.
The van at some point stopped running, and around noon on Monday the mother and a family friend noticed her nine-year-old son wasn't breathing, and took him to a hospital, police said. The grandmother then discovered her two-year-old granddaughter had also stopped breathing, police said.
The causes 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 in the area dropped as low as 11 degrees overnight Sunday into Monday, according to the National Weather Service.
The three surviving children were hospitalized and are in stable condition, police said.
Interim Police Chief Todd Bettison said police are investigating and will present the facts to Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy to decide if criminal charges are warranted. City officials said there had been beds available at a nearby emergency shelter, and were investigating why the family had not sought help there.
Hollywood Casino declined to comment.
Detroit officials said the city's homeless response team had been in contact with the family in November following their eviction, but neither the city nor the family followed up to secure shelter.
"In the course of that conversation, there was no resolution reached on where they would go," Mayor Mike Duggan said during a Tuesday press conference. "For whatever reason, this wasn't deemed an emergency."
About 700 unhoused people die from cold annually, according to the National Health Care for the Homeless Council. And the National Coalition for the Homeless says cold is the leading cause of injury and death for unhoused people.
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.
Andrea Sahouri covers criminal justice for the Detroit Free Press. Contact her at asahouri@freepress.com or on X: @andreamsahouri.
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