2 homeless children freeze to death while sleeping in van with family in Detroit: police

Police in Detroit said that two homeless children froze to death while they slept in a van with their family on Monday, while the city’s mayor revealed that their mother had reached out to homeless services a few months ago.

The two children, a 2-year-old girl and a 9-year-old boy, died Monday after the family pulled into the Greektown Casino and parked on the ninth floor to sleep, police said.

Seven family members were living in the van: the two children, their two siblings and their mother, along with their grandmother and the grandmother’s child, were living in the van, according to the Detroit Police Department. 

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In the middle of the night – when temperatures fell to the low to mid-teens outside – the van stopped running due to some sort of mechanical reason or running out of gas, and so the mother called a family friend to come help, police said.

Then, at around noon on Monday, the mother noticed that the 9-year-old boy was not breathing.

The family friend took the child to the hospital but then the children’s grandmother reported that the 2-year-old girl was also not breathing. 

Police said that the friend returned to the parking garage to take the girl to the hospital.

Based on what had transpired, both children died due to hypothermia, Interim Police Chief Todd Bettison said at a Tuesday press briefing. He said that the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office will ultimately determine the cause of death. 

Three other children – ages 13, 8, and 4 – were physically fine but were checked out, Detroit Police Captain Nathan Duda told Fox 2.

“(I feel) sad, very sad. Especially as a father. I just can’t imagine what the family is feeling. I wish it hadn’t have happened,” Duda said. “This was unnecessary. It didn’t have to happen this way.”

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He said the children’s mother was detained and has provided a statement but is not in custody at this time. 

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said Tuesday that the mother reached out to the city’s homeless response team at least three times, most recently in November.

“In the course of that conversation, there was no resolution reached on where they would go,” Duggan said at the news briefing. He said the incident was a “terrible day for Detroit.”

He 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 afterward.

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

Duggan said 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 that the family had called the city’s homeless response team two other times, once in the summer and once in the previous year.

Duggan said there were beds available at a shelter a few miles from the Hollywood Casino in Greektown.

“It’s gotta make us rethink everything that we’re doing. The heartbreaking part of this is that there were family shelter beds available just a few miles away,” Duggan said. 

“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.”

He said the city’s homeless services added 400 shelter beds this winter, going from 900 to 1,300 beds. 

Additionally, 120 drop-in beds were added and homeless outreach workers were put on 24/7 shifts so that they would be available round the clock to those in need. 

He said everything will be investigated around this case from a housing services standpoint.