If you’ve lived through a Texas summer, you probably have your own way of surviving the 100+ degree weather. Maybe it’s taking a dip at the local pool, or making sure your favorite water bottle is always within reach. Or you avoid the heat altogether and relax in an air-conditioned establishment or your climate-controlled home.
But for some, staying cool by staying home is not an option.
For people experiencing homelessness, the most effective relief from extreme heat isn’t a cooling center or a bottle of water. It’s a home. Moving individuals and families into safe, air-conditioned housing removes them from the daily threat that heat poses to their health and safety, often for good.
A home not only offers relief from the heat but also provides the foundation for lasting stability.
Austin’s heat is already taking a toll this year. According to Austin Public Health’s heat-related illness surveillance, Austin-area hospitals and Austin-Travis County EMS logged 355 emergency department visits and 118 EMS calls for heat-related illness between May 1 and July 6 of this year alone.
Heat exhaustion, dehydration, and heatstroke become far more likely without steady access to shade, water, and air conditioning, putting people experiencing homelessness at even greater risk as temperatures climb.
Behind those numbers are the daily realities we don’t always see. People spending their days in search of shade, access to water, or a cooling center with space and hours that work for them. High temperatures at night also make it difficult to sleep. For a community as resilient as Austin, this is a solvable problem, but it takes all of us.
By supporting the work of local social service organizations and providing resources to help cool our neighbors down, you help create a future where more of our neighbors can experience the relief of stepping out of the heat and into a home.
For more information on how you can help our neighbors Beat The Heat, click here!
