Deaths prompt scrutiny, soul-searching as homelessness grows in Michigan

• Experts say Michigan’s homeless and housing services are overtaxed and overworked, leading to people falling through the cracks
• More affordable housing is a key to combatting homelessness in Michigan, and could save the state money, advocates argue
• The scrutiny follows the death of two Detroit children experiencing homelessness despite their mother repeatedly asking the city for help

LANSING — Homeless service providers are calling for more funding, more staff and more spending on public housing after two Detroit children died earlier this month while living in their family’s van.

“Part of the heartbreak of the story is, we don’t make it easy for people to navigate the system, to get help when they need it,” said Lisa Chapman, director of public policy with the nonprofit Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness. 

In the early morning hours of Feb. 10, A’millah Currie, 2, and Darnell Currie, 9, were found unresponsive after spending the night in a Detroit parking structure. It appears the family used a van for shelter, which either ran out of gas or suffered a mechanical failure that night.

The two children were memorialized Thursday, and Detroit officials are now helping find a place to live for surviving siblings and mother Tateona Williams, who has said she previously sought help from the city’s housing help line but never received any sort of follow-up. 

While full details are still emerging, advocates say the story is an extreme example of what can happen when people slip through social safety nets in Michigan, where homelessness has been on the rise and demand for services is outpacing supply.

And money alone won’t solve the problem in Michigan, where a lack of affordable housing remains a glaring barrier in the state’s uphill quest to “end homelessness.” 

“Even if you've got $700 million sitting in the bank, if you don't have the units to put the people in, it’s just as bad as having no money,” said William A. Willnow III, housing navigator for the nonprofit Housing Help of Lenawee.

Add an inability to pay for expanded staffing levels, and potentially unreliable federal funding as the US Department of Government Efficiency scrutinizes spending, and it’s no wonder some of the major players responsible for assisting residents without housing aren’t able to keep up, said Willnow.

“I don’t think we are funding homeless response at the scale needed,” Chapman added. “People aren’t paid enough to do this work — and it’s super tough work, it’s traumatic on both sides.”

A climbing population

About 33,226 Michiganders experienced homelessness in 2023, the most recent year for which statewide data is available. That was an increase of about 2%, or 521 individuals from 2022 and an even larger jump from 2020, when the state reported 30,746 people experiencing homelessness.

While full data for 2024 is not yet available, a local count suggests homelessness continued to rise in Detroit, Hamtramck and Highland Park. There were 1,725 people experiencing homelessness there as of January 31, up from 1,482 the prior year.

On the west side of the state, a Grand Rapids-area count found 403 people experiencing homelessness in late 2024, up from 317 the prior year. 

Because state data lags one year behind, getting a true understanding of how many people are actually homeless in Michigan right now is difficult, said advocate Sarah Hughes.

Hughes serves as the homeless programs director for the Northwest Michigan Community Action Agency, which oversees services for residents in 10 upstate counties, including Antrim, Charlevoix, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska and Missaukee.

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Because half the counties her organization oversees are rural, Hughes says the services provided to nearly 500 local people experiencing homelessness are “not enough, and few and far between.” 

In one instance, she said a man waited eight years to gain access to affordable housing, simply because supply was so limited. While he waited, Hughes said he “camped rough,” which is not uncommon for people without housing in northern Michigan.

“Where we’re seeing the largest increase in homelessness is in those rural — really, really rural communities, without a whole lot of shelter or supports,” Hughes said, adding that over the last three years, her organization has seen a 45% increase in rural area homelessness.

Helping those people is made harder by the fact that in some parts of the state, like Missaukee or Wexford counties, there are no homeless shelters. In those cases, Hughes said, a person is “steered” toward shelter in a neighboring county — but moving the problem doesn’t solve it.

Statewide data from Michigan 211, a hotline meant to direct people toward shelter or housing supports in times of need, indicates homeless shelters have not been able to keep up with demand.

In the second half of 2024, 192 at-risk or "literally homeless" individuals sought services through the Michigan Balance of State Continuum of Care network, which consists of agencies in 61 of the state’s 83 counties.

Of those, only two people were placed in homeless shelters, while 35 others ended up in a hotel room. For 89 people — 46% of all cases — a shelter was either unavailable or did not have any empty beds.

On the whole, inquiries for housing-related assistance programs increased by 56% in the 2024 fiscal year, according to a recent report submitted to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

Nowhere to go

While advocates say more funding to help people experiencing homelessness would certainly help, a lack of affordable housing remains a major barrier to keeping people under their own roofs.

Just look to Ann Arbor, where last year nearly 7,000 people applied for 20 affordable housing units, said Pam Smith, human services division administrator with the Washtenaw County Office of Community and Economic Development.

That demand was “one of the most dramatic cases I’ve seen in nearly 20 years in the affordable housing field,” Aaron Cooper, executive director of Avelon Housing, wrote in a blog post about the flood of applications. 

“The overwhelming response reinforces the sad fact that we can’t build affordable housing fast enough to keep up with the demand,” he added.

Michigan is investing more in affordable housing under Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who has signed off on a slew of related bills and recently announced funding for employers trying to help find housing for their workers. 

But there’s a new fear housing providers are mulling as they work to tackle homelessness in Michigan: federal funding freezes.

While courts have temporarily blocked the US Office of Management and Budget from pausing federal grants, loans and other financial assistance, providers remain wary the funding freeze could return. 

Should it, programs like the federally funded Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, which incentivizes builders to actually take on low income housing projects, would grind to a halt.

“It’s better, cheaper and less traumatic to keep people in housing,” said Lisa Chapman, with the Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness, “if a humanitarian reason doesn’t sway you.”

A 2017 study from the nonprofit National Alliance to End Homelessness found a chronically homeless individual costs taxpayers just over $35,500 a year in aid. Keeping that person housed only cost around $12,800.

Chapman pointed to things like the state’s $4 million Shelter Diversion Pilot Program, which offers flexible funding to people at risk of becoming homeless, as a way to ease demand on homeless services in Michigan. 

Taken in tandem with further investments in things like emergency rental assistance or a push for rent control, there are ways to keep people from the trauma of being homeless, said Chapman.

But, as always, the conversation comes back to funding. 

While state Sen. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor, acknowledged homelessness “is really a crisis across our state” committing to budgetary funding for services is easier said than done.

“It’s something that many of us in Lansing have been working on,” said Irwin, who serves as chair of the Senate Housing and Human Services panel. 

“But, of course, there’s always a fight for limited resources and we have to compete with other needs like public safety and roads — things … that have strong appetites.”

Next moves?

In the case of the Williams children, mother Tateona said she reached out to Detroit’s homeless services department at least three times prior to her children dying. The last recorded time was November 2024.

Media reports suggest Williams told the city she was not homeless at the time but would not be able to live with family for much longer. Williams’ case was not deemed an emergency by the city, and outreach workers never connected with her, according to Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan.

According to Michigan 211 data, that’s not necessarily unique.

Of the 131,953 people who called the statewide hotline seeking help for a housing problem in 2024, most were referred to some sort of service — but about 19,051 weren't because of "unmet needs,” meaning officials determined there was no relevant program or service available.  

“We have all these different entry points for our homeless response system, whether that’s outreach, diversion, the call center … but if somebody doesn’t get connected or get a response quick enough, anything could happen,” said Sarah Hughes, with the Northwest Michigan Community Action Agency.

In Detroit, the city’s homelessness help line only operates during business hours during the week day and from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturdays. There are no listed Sunday hours.

Yet, when a Bridge reporter called just before 10:30 a.m. Friday, a message said the “call center is currently closed” and told callers to find the “closest police precinct” for aid, contact Motor City Mitten Mission in St. Clair Shores or call back during regular business hours. 

Having limited hours for a help hotline, particularly when it came to something as around-the-clock as homelessness, seems shortsighted but may have been the only workable solution for the agency, said Chapman, of the Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness.

Advocates say the lack of followup is not the only thing that could pose a challenge for people at risk of homelessness. Outdated information on how to navigate help systems also permeates the internet.

That’s not a matter of maliciousness, according to Chapman, more so an illustration of a system that’s overtaxed and understaffed.

As for Williams and her surviving children, it’s unclear what will happen next. 

Louis Piszker, CEO of the Wayne Metropolitan Community Action Agency, offered condolences to the Williams family, calling the children’s deaths an “unimaginable tragedy.” 

The organization oversees homeless services in the county, with Piszker saying that in spite of the tragedy, the group “remains deeply committed to providing vital services that help individuals and families overcome homelessness through compassionate and dedicated support,” 

“We recognize the shortcomings in the homelessness system and are working closely with the city of Detroit and our partners to thoroughly review and strengthen all processes to ensure this does not happen again,” he said in a statement sent to Bridge.