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As outside temperatures dropped to the low- to mid-teens Fahrenheit on Feb. 10, 2025, of in a family van parked in a Detroit casino parking garage.
We are who study , and in the months since this tragedy, we took a deep look at the trends in homelessness and housing policies that foreshadowed the events of that night.
More kids are experiencing homelessness
One important trend is that the number of homeless children in the city reached a record high in 2024. This is true even though the overall numbers of people experiencing homelessness in the city is declining overall.
According to the Point-in-Time count, , up from 312 the year before. The count captures data for one night each year.
Most of these children were unhoused but considered sheltered because they had a place to sleep in an emergency shelter or transitional housing, or were able to temporarily stay with family or friends.
Nineteen of the kids were unsheltered 鈥� meaning they were sleeping in places not designed for human habitation, like cars, parks or abandoned buildings.
A different set of data comes from the Detroit Public Schools. The district looked at the entire and found that roughly 1 in 19 students were unhoused at some point during that nine-month period 鈥� more than double the number in the school year.
A lack of temporary solutions
The lack of adequate funding and staffing means unhoused people often struggle to access temporary shelter beds.
That includes kids. Even though , the number of unsheltered children of school age has nearly tripled in three years, rising from an estimated 48 in the to 142 in the . These figures align with the rise in unsheltered children recorded in the one-night Point-in-Time count, which increased from four in 2016 to 19 in 2024.
The is likely to increase the need for shelter and put additional strain on Detroit鈥檚 response to the crisis.
Gaps in a vital system
Children who experience housing insecurity are often caught in the middle of bureaucracy and failed regulation.
The mother of the children who died in February in November 2024 when they were staying with a family member. The mother noted that she wanted to keep all five of her children together.
According to a report issued by the city, . Her situation was not considered an emergency at the time of contact since she was sheltered with family.
At the time of the call, the family was a 鈥� in other words, not the . If the city had deemed the situation an emergency, protocol would be to dispatch immediate support for the family.
The mother moved her family to the van after the request for help failed to provide a solution.
The Detroit mayor鈥檚 office and promised and require homeless outreach employees to visit any unhoused families that call for help.
鈥淲e have to make sure that we do everything possible to make sure that this doesn鈥檛 happen again,鈥� Deputy Mayor Melia Howard told local media.
More than 8 in 10 placed on wait list
According to , the system responsible for connecting individuals to shelters, 82% of calls do not result in immediate help but rather being placed on a shelter waitlist. Similar to , the wait time is long.
Families in Detroit face , while unaccompanied youth typically .
The long wait for shelter has contributed to the rise in people living on the streets or in their vehicles. The number of unsheltered individuals 鈥� including both adults and children 鈥� doubled from to 305 in 2024. This trend of increasing unsheltered homelessness contrasts with the overall decline in the total number of homeless people in the city, which is down from a peak of 2,597 in 2015.
Children need to thrive.
Their access to stable housing depends on their parents and what the adults in their life are able to provide. As , some children are .
Stricter regulations
Over the past decade, Detroit, like many other U.S. cities, has experienced rising housing costs while wages , .
Since 2021, the number of rentals in the city has .
. Since 2017, the average rent in Detroit has increased 55% for single-family homes and 43% for multifamily homes.
While inflation and to this rise, stricter like the , and have played an important role.
Some landlords pass the expense of these regulations on to tenants, making housing less affordable. Others leave their properties vacant, pushing up prices by lessening the supply.
The current average fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Detroit is . For the typical household in the city, this basic shelter cost, not including utilities, .
For the lowest-income households, any unexpected expense can disrupt a delicate financial balance and lead to eviction and homelessness. Children in these situations often face major instability, moving between shelters 鈥� or, as in the case of the children who died in February, sleeping in cars.
This kind of displacement , and .
Detroit鈥檚 stricter housing regulations may have improved conditions for some renters, but a report by Outlier Media shows that of landlords are in compliance, in subpar rentals at higher prices.
And these new rules have victims who are too often ignored until tragedy strikes.
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