Detroit — When 68-year-old Roger Jackson’s body was discovered in the hallway of a Detroit apartment building in April with a deadly mix of cocaine, fentanyl and xylazine in his system, a referral for the city’s shelter system he had gotten the day before was tucked in the homeless man’s pocket.

Gail Marlow, the executive director of the Motor City Mitten Mission, a street outreach nonprofit that works extensively with the city's homeless population, received a call from the Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office to help identify his body. She had written the referral for Jackson on April 25.

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