In early February, Tateona Williams suffered the unthinkable. Around 1a.m. on a freezing cold Monday, she parked her van in a Detroit parking garage and kept her vehicle running so that she and her four children, plus her mother and her mother’s child, could stay warm. At some point in the night, the engine turned off. Her 9-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter stopped breathing and later died, apparently freezing to death, demonstrating the devastating impacts of homelessness rates for families rising.

Williams and her children had been living with relatives, but in late November were told they had to find somewhere else to live. She called the city’s homeless response team at least three times seeking help, but her situation wasn’t deemed an emergency, and she never received assistance in finding somewhere to stay, showing the lack of attention to homelessness rates for families rising; in November she said she was told no family rooms were available. So they began living out of a van, frequently parking in the casino garage where her two children died. It was only after that tragedy that she was finally given a spot in a shelter.

Homelessness has seen a sharp uptick across the country in recent years, but the increase has been the most dramatic for families with children age 5 and younger, multiple data sources suggest. “The most common age that someone is in shelter nationally is under the age of 5,” said Henry Love, vice president for public policy & strategy at Win, the largest provider of family shelters in New York City. This trend means more and more families with young children are scrambling to find somewhere to live.

This housing instability can have a lasting impact on children, affecting their cognitive and social-emotional development and leading to learning delays and academic challenges. Those challenges are likely to follow them throughout their education and even later into their lives.

In its most recent estimate of homelessness in America, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) reported that the number of homeless people increased by 18% last year, reaching the highest level ever recorded. The problem is even more acute for families with children: They experienced the largest single-year increase, with a rate that climbed by 39% between 2023 and 2024. That came after a 16% increase in homelessness for families with children in 2023.

Read the full article about homelessness rates for families by Bryce Covert at The 74.