Children’s deaths spotlight the harsh reality of homelessness in Michigan

March 6, 2025: This story has been updated to reflect new information about the children’s deaths.

When two Detroit children died in the van their family was living in in mid-February, the tragedy quickly garnered national attention as details of their ordeal became public.

There had been seven people occupying the van when it pulled into a Greektown parking garage hours before the children’s deaths; the temperature at the time was below freezing; after becoming homeless in November, the mother had reached out to various services multiple times for help, but to no avail.

The city is now investigating to determine what went wrong, and the family has been given a new home by the city and Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries.

Lisa Chapman, director of public policy at the Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness, said the devastating situation underscores the difficulties of navigating homelessness and the persistent strain on the systems that support the unhoused.

“I had one person who’s been homeless and evicted seven times, told me that she would work eight hours a day and keep a whole notebook of all the places she called and all the landlords she visited and all the things,” Chapman said. “It’s like a full-time job.”

Homelessness on the rise

Nationally, analysts say, homelessness reached a record high in 2023. Most Americans are one crisis away from potentially becoming homeless themselves: About one in four people has less than $1,000 saved for emergencies, according to a 2024 Forbes Advisors survey.

In Michigan, there were approximately 33,200 people experiencing homelessness in 2023, according to the latest state data, a 2% increase from the prior year. While data for 2024 has not been finalized yet, Chapman said, preliminary statewide data collected by the coalition’s homeless management information system shows that homelessness went down slightly.

Keeping a record of the homeless population is helpful for lawmakers and advocates when discussing funding and services, but those numbers don’t reflect the full extent of the problem, said Christina Soulard, the homeless solutions program manager with the Michigan State Housing Development Authority. The state data includes the number of people served in places like emergency shelters and transitional housing, but it may miss those who are couch surfing or living in abandoned buildings.

“It’s just an unfortunate cascade of events that sometimes people fall into, and they may not have a safety net, or they may not have savings and just can’t get themselves out of it,” Chapman said.

A faulty system and a housing shortage

Shelters and other supportive services for the homeless have been ill-equipped to keep up with the increased need due to funding challenges, Chapman said. In Michigan’s decentralized shelter system, unhoused people can face unique challenges depending on where they are in the state.

Some counties don’t have a single homeless shelter. Even in communities with shelters, it can be difficult to get a bed. Certain shelters have criteria that not everyone meets, such as age or gender restrictions. Navigating resources can also be overwhelming without the help of a case manager, Chapman said, and sometimes people don’t have access to suitable technology for a housing search.

Not to mention the insufficient stock of affordable, safe housing, which has exacerbated the problem: Michigan was short 141,000 housing units as of last July, the housing development authority estimates.

“We really need to keep working and chipping away so that we increase the housing in all income levels, and it has to be quality housing for people, not just concentrated in low-income areas for low-income people,” Chapman said. “It needs to be everywhere, in all kinds of neighborhoods where people would choose to live.”

The statewide housing plan is a step in that direction, Chapman said. In 2022, the state put together its first comprehensive look at Michigan’s housing stock and outlined goals to make good, affordable and safe housing accessible for all residents. The state is aiming to have built or rehabilitated 75,000 houses by 2027, including 39,000 affordable rental units and 13,500 units for low- and moderate-income families.

There are resources available, such as housing choice vouchers through MSHDA, that provide rent subsidies for very low-income people, and local resource agencies that provide assistance with case management and other services to prevent people from becoming homeless.

Residents can call or text Michigan 2-1-1 to access a free, 24/7 service that can connect them with food, shelter, or child care assistance. The Homeless Shelters Directory maintains a list of shelters open in Michigan, which can be found here. Warming centers can keep people out of the frigid cold during the winter months, too, and locations can be found here.

The road ahead

There’s not one specific solution to fighting homelessness, but lawmakers are eyeing policy reforms that could bring about change.

So far this year, Democrats in the state Legislature have introduced bills that would give local governments the authority to implement rent control policies and allow tenants to deduct the costs of repairs they do themselves from their rent.

Ongoing conversations between officials and local organizers who help shape program development are key to decreasing levels of homelessness, Soulard said. She added that the state can’t tackle the issue itself, and more support is needed at the federal level. 

The Youth Homelessness Demonstration Project, operated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, gives communities the opportunity to apply for funding for initiatives that reduce youth homelessness. Another HUD program is Continuum of Care, which provides local agencies supporting the homeless money to coordinate housing and other services.

Soulard worries that reduced federal programming will hamper efforts to get more people off the streets. NPR reported in February that President Donald Trump intends to cut 84% of staff at the HUD office that funds homeless services and oversees affordable housing initiatives.

“If there’s anything I could really push for right now, it would be advocacy at the federal level to say, not only do we need to maintain what’s being funded, but we need to grow it to really meet the broader need,” Soulard said.