Mom of Detroit kids who froze to death said she asked for help from city, children’s father
Tateona Williams kept her kids fed, made sure they were in school, and ensured they were loved and cared for. But when she asked for help from the city and from their father, she was turned away.
(FOX 2) – Less than three days have passed since a Detroit mother experienced a heartbreaking tragedy when two of her children died from apparent hypothermia during a freezing night in the city.
While the mayor is looking to overhaul the city’s homeless services department, the 29-year-old mother is reeling from what she says was the one mistake she made and the painful consequences that followed.
What they’re saying:
Tateona Williams says she did everything in her power to keep her kids safe and anyone familiar with her knows the kind of mother she is.
“Everybody who knows me knows that I worship the ground that those kids walked on,” he said, tears rolling down her face.
Her children ate right. They went to school. According to her mom, they “didn’t want for nothing.”
“I had one mistake,” she then said.
A day earlier, her cousin Javeina Moore told FOX 2 that her only mistake was having too much pride to ask for help. And yet, Williams had reached out for assistance.
If it wasn’t the city that she had phoned, it was her children’s father.
“He had an excuse every time. Either he’s working, they can’t come where he’s living, he lives with a female, and the parents don’t want kids there, or something,” Williams said. “Maybe I asked the wrong people for help, but that was the only thing I did wrong.”
When she called the Detroit’s homeless solutions agency, another unhelpful reply was waiting for her.
“And every time I call they said they don’t a bed, they don’t have family beds,” she said.
The last time she phoned the city was in November. But long before that, she had joined Detroit’s Coordinated Assistance Model (CAM) that helps connect struggling citizens with support services like housing and treatment.
Nothing came of her efforts, leading to a freezing night for herself, her mother, and her five kids sleeping in a 2002 Chrysler Town & country minivan. They had been living out of the van since November.
Dig deeper:
Williams first discovered one of her kids was not breathing Monday morning.
The van had run out of gas and turned off sometime in the night, leading to lethal temperatures inside the vehicle and the mom’s tragic discovery. As a family member transported the child to the hospital, they got a phone call that another kid was also not breathing.
Both the 2-year-old and 9-year-old were pronounced dead at the hospital.
The medical examiner will officially determine the cause of death during an autopsy, but police pointed to freezing temperatures as the primary cause.
The next day, the Mayor Mike Duggan and interim police chief Todd Bettison held a press conference, calling for a review of Detroit’s homeless outreach program within the Department of Housing Revitalization and Development.
Duggan said it was likely they would expand the number of visits Detroit’s outreach team conducts to homeless family members.
That’s because while Williams and her kids were sleeping in a van on the ninth floor of a casino parking structure, a shelter with available beds was open just down the road.
“We have to put eyes on these families experiencing homelessness with our professional outreach workers. We have to get them physically there and get an immediate, response,” said Duggan on Tuesday.
He called on HRD’s director and deputy mayor to return in two weeks with a full review of its outreach.
What you can do:
As the city works on reforming its own strategy, Williams and her kids are working through the tragedy that is only a few days old.
Her cousin is hoping to help, setting up a gofundme.
“And that’s one of the reasons we did set the GoFundMe up so she can have – so she will be able to have housing for herself and the children, her other remaining children,” said Javeina Moorer, Williams’ cousin.
The link can be found here.
The Source: Information from family and the city of Detroit was used while reporting this story.
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Funeral details released for 2 children who froze in Detroit casino parking garage
Funeral arrangements have been announced for two children who Detroit police say appear to have froze to death while they slept in a van in a downtown casino parking garage.
A public visitation will take place from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Feb. 19 at the New McFall Brothers Funeral Home in Detroit, 9419 Dexter Ave.
Funeral services will start with a family hour at 10 a.m. followed by the funeral proceeding at 11 a.m. on Feb. 20 at Triumph Church, 2760 E Grand Blvd. in Detroit.
The New McFall Brothers Funeral Home said in a news release they’ll be providing services for the family at no cost.
“As the community mourns this heartbreaking loss, the overwhelming outpouring of love and support deeply touches the family. At this time, they kindly request privacy as they navigate this unimaginable grief,” according to a press release from the funeral home.
Deputy Mayor Melia Howard said the city has been working with the family and the funeral home to coordinate the visitation and funeral services, at no cost to the family. The city’s of Detroit’s housing and revitalization department is also trying to secure housing for the family.
“We are hopeful that we will have them settled into a safe and comfortable home by this weekend,” Howard said in a statement on Thursday.
The mother, with four of her children, and their grandmother, with one of her children, were unhoused and sheltering in a van when they entered the parking garage of Hollywood Casino at Greektown around 1 a.m. on Monday, according to police.
Sometime during the night, the car stopped running — police said there was some sort of mechanical issue.
By noon on Monday, the mother noticed her 9-year-old son wasn’t breathing. A family friend took the child to the hospital.
Shortly after, the grandmother reported the mother’s 2-year-old daughter was no longer breathing. The family friend went back to pick her up and transport her to the hospital.
Both children died. Police believe they froze to death, although the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office hasn’t yet released an official cause of death.
Prior to the tragedy, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said the mother had called the city’s homeless response team at least three times asking for help, most recently in November, when she told a staffer she was living with family but would not be able to stay there longer.
She never followed up with the city after that November, and the city never followed up with her, Duggan said. Her situation was not deemed an emergency by the response team, he said.
The mother reportedly called other shelters too, but were told they were full.
Duggan requested the city and its housing department investigate what went wrong and how they could prevent a tragedy like this from happening again. That report is due in two weeks.
Andrea Sahouri covers criminal justice for the Detroit Free Press. Contact her at asahouri@freepress.com or on X: @andreamsahouri.
