Ebony JJ Curry

Reporting fellow

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February 10, 2025, was bitterly cold in Detroit. An unhoused mother, Tateona Williams, parked her van inside the Greektown Casino parking structure near downtown, hoping to shield her children from the night air.

By sunrise, two of them – 9-year-old Darnell Currie Jr. and his 2-year-old sister, A’millah – were dead.

The Wayne County Medical Examiner ruled their deaths carbon monoxide poisoning.

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City officials confirmed that the family had contacted Detroit’s homeless-response system months earlier, seeking help for permanent housing after being evicted. But Williams — like many people or families who are impoverished to that extent — felt unable to ‘figh

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