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Officers originally went to a home on D Street SE to make an arrest, but they called for help after going inside and seeing a dirty room where a mother and her two children were living and sleeping.
The 28-year-old mother lived in a small bedroom with her 7-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son. "To keep three people's things together in one room it's hard."
The three slept in a bed together, surrounded by piles of clutter, garbage and clothes. The mother doesn't have a job.
"I cry every time, my daughter asks me why I am crying. I can't explain."
Last Wednesday, someone reported the mother to the city's Child Family Services Agency for child neglect. She said she asked the social worker, who came to the house, for help.
"The lady said she was going to give me a contact before the week was out about a housing referral and I haven't heard nothing from her."
The room she lives in is part of a single family home, which serves as a rooming house. Several people live in individual room.
Donna Butler lives downstairs where the stove is used for heat, the smoke detectors don't work and other tenants said people come daily to smoke crack in an empty room.
"I don't know what they do in there. That room was being rented out. Nobody's in there now."
As for the two children living under the same roof, Butler said, "Kids don't be down here. Kids shouldn't be in this house at all."
Police were at the house to serve a warrant on another tenant and found the mother living in the upstairs room in the dingy conditions. The officers immediately notified child family service so they could take action.
"I just need help to get out of here that's my main concern."
After the police stepped in and ABC 7/NewsChannel8's Jennifer Donelan made repeated calls to child protection services, the family said they are getting a week-long paid stay at a downtown hotel as a residence is found for the family.
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