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Family of kids who froze to death reached out at least three times to Detroit's homeless response team

A family facing homelessness reached out at least three times to Detroit's homeless response team, including as recently as late November, before two children froze to death in a van in a casino parking structure on Monday.

A day later, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan called for a review of city services for homelessness, the city's homeless call center and ways to make services more accessible after the children's deaths. They were ages two and nine.

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  • This bit " Are we doing everything to make sure people in the city know how to access this critical care?" particularly pisses me off. He's implying that it's the family's own fault that this happened, that there is all the help needed out there, the family just didn't access it. Never mind that they'd asked the authorities for help twice and didn't receive any.

    It reminds me of in the UK whenever a disabled person has their benefits stopped and starves to death, the news reports are always full of victim blaming, saying that there's so much help out there, the disabled person just didn't access it. When, actually I know from experience, there is nowhere enough help and whatever authorities you contact just refer you back and forth to each other.

    It seems most countries just have the appearance of help in place so that people who are doing alright can sleep at night, imagining that there is help available for the less fortunate, when there really isn't.