Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan is promising changes for the city’s homeless services after two children froze to death in a van just miles from open shelter beds earlier this month.

“We’re going to do a much more intensive job of making sure that nobody can ever be unaware of the services” available for the homeless in Detroit, Duggan said at a press conference Thursday.

Duggan, who ditched the Democratic Party to run for governor as an Independent, vowed to boost outreach and communication through expanded operating hours for the city’s homeless helpline, increased patrol of parking lots, and other measures, according to The Detroit News.

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The press conference followed 17 days after 9-year-old Darnell Currie, Jr. and his sister A’Millah Currie, 2, froze to death while sleeping in a van with their homeless mother and others that was parked at Hollywood Casino Hotel at Greektown.

The mother, Tateona Williams, told the media she repeatedly sought help from the city’s homeless services to no avail.

“I asked everybody for help. I called out of state. I called cities I didn’t know. I called cities people asked me to call. I even asked Detroit – I’ve been on the (the city’s wait) list for the longest,” Williams told WXYZ. “Everybody now wants to help after I lost two kids? I’ve been asking for help.”

Duggan confirmed on Thursday Williams first reached out for help regarding rental assistance in 2022, and again sought help for homelessness in 2023. Her last contact with the city was in late November, with Duggan noting the city never followed up.

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Duggan said at a previous press conference there were beds available at a shelter just miles from the Hollywood Casino when the children froze to death on Feb. 10.

Detroit’s Coordinated Assessment Model, used to refer folks to shelters, receives thousands of calls per year, and Williams experience is not unique, The News reports.

“In 2024, data shows those who called the CAM helpline seeking a shelter bed were typically put on wait lists: Of 31,363 total intakes by the system, nearly 79% were placed on a waiting list on average. For families, 81% of intakes were placed on a waitlist,” according to the news site.

“The CAM network has a challenge every day of figuring out who is imminent danger of being pushed out and who you can make arrangements with to stay in their current housing,” Duggan said.

That challenge is likely complicated by the folks the city puts in charge of the system.

An investigation by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Charlie LeDuff found Alan Rosetto, “chairman of a committee within a sprawling bureaucratic blob that dispenses hundreds of millions of federal dollars to Detroit for housing and homelessness,” is a convicted pedophile who can’t do basic math.

Rosetto told LeDuff the city’s emergency hotline is terribly underfunded with restricted hours, and attributed the long wait lists and lack of follow up to Duggan’s system to prioritize need.

“The city is the puppet master, really,” he said. “It’s so bureaucratic, it’s a prescription for death. I mean whatever happened to need shelter, get shelter? Not three days from now.”

Duggan hasn’t apologized for the city’s failure to follow up with Williams, but has acknowledged the failure.

“We put a system in place that did not communicate with a family that needed it most,” he said Thursday.

Detroit’s CAM emergency hotline is now open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with the Motor City Mitten Mission taking after hours calls. Officials also pledged to do more to follow up with folks seeking help, and to make families a priority, The News reports.

“We never want to see this happen again,” said Detroit Deputy Mayor Melia Howard.

“The loss of the Currie children is something, as we have stated, can never happen again and should never have happened,” she said. “When a family reaches out for help; when they’re in the midst of a crisis, it is our job, our duty, to provide them with those services that they need.”