Michigan’s homeless population has been left out in the cold during a time when federal and state governments spent millions to house illegal immigrants.
Now, housing and homeless advocates are sounding the alarm after the recent deaths of two young children in Detroit. The children died in their family’s van, where they were staying due to homelessness.
The Detroit community paid final respects to nine-year-old Darnell Currie Jr. and his two-year-old sister A’millah Currie at Triumph Church in Detroit on Thursday, Feb 20. Their mother, Tateona Williams, reached out to the city for help before the children died.
The siblings were found unresponsive in the early morning hours of Feb. 10, after sleeping in a van in a Detroit casino parking structure. The family was using a van for shelter, which either ran out of gas or suffered a mechanical failure that night.
Detroit officials are now helping find a place for Williams and the surviving siblings to live. The mother Tateona said she previously sought help from the city’s housing help line at least three times but never received any sort of follow-up, Bridge Michigan reports. The last recorded time was November 2024.
Under Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s watch, homelessness is on the rise in Michigan, with rates rising just slightly over 8% in the last four years, according to the most recent state data. Skyrocketing housing costs and other complex factors such as extended unemployment, addiction, and untreated mental health issues contribute to homelessness.
Experts say Michigan’s homeless and housing services are overtaxed, leading to gaps in services and people falling through the cracks despite the state’s commitment to “end homelessness.”
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