Detroit mother struggles to keep family safe in freezing cold

DETROIT (WJBK) - One Detroit mother may need your help keeping her family safe in this dangerously cold weather as they live with no heat.

"It started getting really, really cold and my baby started crying," Vickey Carter said. "I mean it's just cold and I don't want to wake up and they froze to death or anything like that."

Carter lives at the home with her three children, two of whom are DPSCD students. If they're not staying the night at a relative's home, school is their only refuge from the cold.

"When I go to school I gotta keep going out the cold into the cold, into the heat and when I come home I gotta come back into the cold and it's been a real deep struggle," Carter said.

Carter says things got tough when she was laid off in November. She's been scraping up the money to get the furnace back up and running, but it's not enough for this fix.

"I thought I had some help but I guess he said it was beyond what he could do," she said.

Now a pot of boiling water and an open oven function as space heaters. The dogs and cold couches provide little comfort in this house, where hope has just about froze over.

The Detroit school district's homeless liaison contacted FOX 2 hoping we could get this family some help before the kids are forced to stay at a shelter.

The school's foundation has set up a donation page if you're able and willing to help. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION.

If you're so inclined to help this family please call us at (248) 552-5150 or email fox2newsdesk@foxtv.com. You can also contact the liaison at communications@detroitk12.org and george.eason@detroitk12.org.