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A GoFundMe campaign has raised over $12,000 for Tateona Williams, a Detroit mother who lost two of her children to apparent hypothermia when she sheltered in a van parked in the casino garage.
Williams, a 29-year-old certified nursing assistant and medical assistant, had been homeless for about three months. She was preparing to start a new job when her family’s desperate situation took a tragic turn.
Despite repeated requests for assistance in her plight, Tateona Williams and her family did not receive any immediate help. With no alternative available, they turned to live in a van they had parked to serve as shelter.
On the night of February 10, parked on the ninth floor of the Hollywood Casino parking garage, the van ran out of gas and heat. As temperatures fell below freezing, two of Williams' children, Darnell Currie Jr., 9, and Amillah Currie, 2, succumbed to the cold.
Three other children, aged 13, 8, and 4, survived and were taken to the hospital before being placed with family members. Tateona Williams' mother, Yvette Goodman, 48, was in the vehicle at the time.
In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE Magazine, Williams described the harrowing scene. She said she was awakened to find "stuff coming out" of Darnell's mouth, and when she hurried him to the hospital, the doctors were not able to save him.
Later, William's mother Goodman found Amillah was also unresponsive, which propelled yet another rushed trip to the hospital, where Amillah was pronounced dead.
Interim Detroit Police Chief Todd Bettison revealed that Tateona Williams had contacted a friend for help even before realizing her son was in distress, as their vehicle had stopped running during the night. Authorities were later notified by the hospital about the children’s deaths.
The devastating loss has drawn attention to the urgent need for improved homeless assistance in Detroit.
What did Tateona Williams speak about to the media?
Tateona Williams spoke to the media about the tragic loss of her two children, who died after she and her family were forced to sleep in a car due to a lack of available shelter space. In her interview with PEOPLE, she recalled desperately seeking help from homeless services but receiving no assistance. Williams said:
"I kept calling. I called out of state, cities, different states. I asked Detroit for help. And they still would say, when I called, they didn't have no beds. But it took two [of] my kids to die... for them to want to help."
She described the devastation of waking up to find her 9-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter unresponsive. Tateona Williams recounted:
“I tried to give him CPR, I was just giving him CPR and kept saying, ‘Don’t leave me, don’t leave me please,’”
Williams expressed deep regret over their situation, explaining how she had attempted to secure hotel stays but couldn’t make it work. She said:
“I regret having to sleep out there so bad. I tell them, ‘I’m sorry, but I tried.’ I tried to keep hotels. I tried to pay people to stay there [in hotels]. It wasn’t working for me,”
The loss of her children has left her devastated. Tateona Williams continued:
“I lost the one who made me a mother. And I lost a 2-year-old. I’m dying inside. It hurts. It feels like my heart is breaking. But I have two more kids to live for.”
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan acknowledged in a press conference that Williams had reached out to the city’s homeless response team in November, but no follow-up occurred.
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“At least as far as we’ve been able to determine so far, the family never called back again for service. And as far as we’ve been able to tell, our homeless staff never proactively reached out to say, ‘What happened with your situation, was it resolved?’”
The mayor has now ordered a review of the city's homeless services. Meanwhile, Williams and her surviving children are receiving support, with Williams staying at a shelter and her two remaining children in the care of relatives.
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