City Of Detroit Gifts New Home To Homeless Mom Who Lost Her Children To Frigid Temperatures

The Detroit mom's newly renovated home has been stacked with food, freshly painted, and decorated with brand new windows and flooring.

Tateona Williams, the homeless mother whose two children froze to death after living in a van for around three months in cold Detroit weather, has been gifted a newly renovated home by the city.

Chad Audi, president and CEO of the Detroit Rescue Mission Ministry, said on Instagram that the mission and city decided to step up and do something to help Williams’ family. “Our hearts continue to be with the Williams and Currie families as we stand by them, offering our love and compassion,” the City of Detroit captioned a video tour of Williams’ new home. “While nothing can truly ease their loss, the gift of a new home represents a pivotal step forward for both their family and our community. Detroit, let us unite in support.”

Williams walked through her new residence, which has been freshly painted, renovated with brand-new windows and flooring, and stacked with food. Audi hopes this is a good start to helping the mother cope with the loss of her two children, a 2-year-old and a 9-year-old. In the video, the Detroit mom confirmed that she likes her new home.

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BLACK ENTERPRISE previously covered the tragic incident that occurred earlier this month when Williams woke up to find two of her four children unresponsive. After being transported to a local hospital, the children were pronounced dead due to what appeared to be hypothermia. Williams and her children had been sleeping inside their van, which ran out of gas overnight and forced the family to endure freezing temperatures. The homeless mother said she faced difficulty receiving help from the city’s homeless response team, which she had reached out to several times, including last November. The woman, who had been homeless for three months, said she was not able to stay at hotels any longer, which resulted in sleeping inside the van in a Detroit casino parking garage.

According to The Detroit News, Williams said she’s been asking for help, and everybody has reached out “after” she lost her two kids. “I feel like it wasn’t their time,” she said. “I did everything I was supposed to do.”

Williams can “forget” the “sob stories, according to Darnell Currie Sr., the father of the children, who told 7 News Detroit that he was hoping the summons to the hospital “was a sick joke, but it wasn’t.” Williams said she asked Currie for help with the children, three of which she shares with him. Currie, however, told the outlet that “she did not. All she said was, ‘Can I get [th]em? Can I get [th]em?'” He said there was a difference between asking him to get the kids just to get them and asking him to get them because she was homeless, but according to him, she never specified.

BE noted that Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan confirmed that Williams contacted the city’s homeless response team three times. The last contact was on Nov. 25 of last year, but no outreach worker ever visited the family. The incident prompted a review of the city’s homeless services.