Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan calls for review of services after children's hypothermia deaths in casino parking structure

DETROIT — A family facing homelessness reached out at least three times to Detroit's homeless response team, including as recently as late November, before two children froze to death in a van in casino parking structure on Monday.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan now is calling for a review of city services for homelessness and ways to make them more accessible after the children's death. They were two and nine.

Duggan said a preliminary review of city records shows the mother of five, who had been living out of her van with her five kids and staying in various casino parking lots, reached out at least three times. The family said they'd been living with relatives and needed a place to go.

"In the course of that conversation, there was no resolution reached on where they would go," Duggan said.

He said what made Monday's tragedy even worse was that there was shelter space available for families that evening just a few miles from the Hollywood Casino parking structure in Greektown.

"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.

Detroit Police Chief Todd Bettison said a preliminary investigation shows the mom and her kids had been living in a van for two to three months when she allegedly parked in the Greektown structure around 1 a.m. At some point, her van ran out of gas or had a mechanical failure, Bettison said.

"I want to make sure that the people who need it the most know that we are there for them," said Duggan.

Bettison said a preliminary investigation suggests the children, two and nine, died of hypothermia. The mother noticed one of the children, the nine-year-old, wasn't breathing around noon on Monday and called a friend, who drove the child to Children's Hospital. The two-year-old also was later to be found not breathing. Both were later pronounced dead.

Bettison said the city received a 911 call from the mom around 12:12 p.m. Monday.

City officials on Tuesday urged those facing homelessness to seek services, but Duggan acknowledged that some don't always seek help. He said he wants to create a policy that would require outreach workers to make in-person visits to families with children.

"We have got to do a better job of educating people that the service is there," said Duggan.

Bettison said no one is in police custody but the mother and a grandmother have been questioned by police. He said the investigation is ongoing and the department will present its findings to the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office, but wouldn't confirm a criminal investigation is being pursued.

Bettison also said that the mother and children would sometimes use the casino restrooms and had parked in other casino parking lots in the city.

"They moved around from various casino parking lots," said Bettison.

Three other children who were also in the van were evaluated at the hospital and are now staying with relatives, Bettison said.

Mom sought help

According to Duggan, the mother involved in Monday's tragedy reached out to city's homeless response team at least three times. The most recent contact was Nov. 25 last year. The family had also reached out earlier in the summer and back into the previous year, Duggan said.

He said the city has outreach workers — though he didn't state how many — to help in emergency situations for those facing homelessness. But the mother and her five kids wasn't deemed an emergency.

"If it’s an emergency situation, we send out one of these outreach workers because when you’re on the phone, you have people with complicated problems, sometimes it’s hard to figure exactly what the circumstances are," he said. "When a homeless outreach worker goes and lays eyes on the family and sees what’s going on, they know exactly what to do. For whatever reason this wasn’t deemed an emergency that caused an outreach worker to visit the family."

Duggan said three weeks later, the city opened a drop-in center on December 16 for those in need of housing or a shelter.

"We were opening it to be ahead of the worst temperatures of the winter," he said. "At least as far as we’ve been able to determine so far, the family never called back for service. And as far as we’ve been able to tell, our homeless staff never proactively reached out to say, ‘What happened with your situation? Was it resolved?’ Or to indicate there might be room available."

Duggan said the city has to make sure "we do everything possible to make sure this doesn’t happen again."

"I’m not talking about an individual employee," he said. "I’m talking about the system."

He's asked Deputy Mayor Malia Howard and Julie Schneider, the director of the city's housing and revitalization department, to come back to him with a plan in two weeks.

Services available

Terra Linzner, Detroit's homelessness solutions coordinator, called the deaths "heartbreaking" on Monday evening and emphasized the resources in place for those who may be without shelter. She said the Detroit Housing Resource HelpLine at (866) 313-2520 operates Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.

And Duggan on Tuesday urged those who need help to go to a police station if they need help after the hotline's hours.

"If you find yourself sleeping outside and need help outside of the HelpLine business hours, please go to the closest police precinct where they can connect them with an Outreach team for help with overnight services," Linzner said in a statement.