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House Oversight Presses MDHHS on Child‑Welfare Decisions after Homelessness and Deaths
Summary
Lawmakers pressed Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Elizabeth Hertel over multiple child‑welfare cases — including two young siblings found living in a tent and later a car — and questioned department policies, auditing gaps and capacity at child‑caring institutions.
Representative Regas opened the hearing by asking Elizabeth Hertel, director of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, about two children, Daisy and Donald Arthur, ages 6 and 5, who were found living in a tent in Bedford Township in late 2023 and later found living in a car in April 2025.
Hertel said Children’s Protective Services (CPS) operates under the state child protection law and that CPS “does not substantiate” when an investigation does not meet the legal threshold for child abuse or neglect. She described efforts to expand prevention services, including embedding family resource specialists (FRS) — eligibility specialists who accompany CPS workers to offer housing, food and employment referrals — in some counties. “We want to be able to bring somebody with us who then can try to meet the needs of that family,” Hertel said.
Lawmakers pressed Hertel over whether the department’s response adequately protected the Arthur children. Representative Regas repeatedly asked Hertel to…
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