2020 was the hottest, deadliest summer for Phoenix homeless people. 2021 may be worse

Jessica Boehm
Arizona Republic

Cameron Green stood outside his tent on Madison Street pointing toward 13th Avenue, where he said a man had suffocated inside his tent from the heat a few days earlier.

At 10:30 a.m., it wasn't quite 100 degrees yet, but the leftover humidity from recent monsoon storms made for a more uncomfortable heat, and beads of sweat trickled down his forehead as he spoke.

"It was just right up the street, someone I knew and talked to on a daily basis," Green said.

About 150 people live in tents in the encampment on Madison Street, just outside the Human Services Campus south of downtown Phoenix. Another several hundred people sleep at the shelter on the campus.

Almost all of them know or know of someone who has died this year outside in the heat.

Anthony Trump said a man who slept two beds down from him inside Central Arizona Shelter Services on the Human Services Campus recently died outside.

The crime scene unit came and took photos, and then the medical examiner took his body away in a van, Trump said.

The Rev. Dan Ponisciak, the executive director of Andre House, said two bodies were found just outside of Andre House, a soup kitchen near the campus and encampments.

As of July 10, Maricopa County confirmed 16 heat-associated deaths and is investigating 138 others. This time last year, there were five confirmed deaths and 114 under investigation.

Three of the 16 confirmed heat deaths were of people experiencing homelessness. Maricopa County would not say how many of the pending heat-associated deaths were of people experiencing homelessness.

Last year, more than half of the people who died of heat were homeless at the time of their death. A record 172 people experiencing homelessness died of heat-associated causes in metro Phoenix — a 161% increase compared to 2019.

A combination of record high temperatures and limited indoor heat relief options because of COVID-19 social distancing rules likely contributed to last year's record number of deaths.

But service providers are not optimistic that this summer will be less lethal. Although COVID-19 cases are down, not all heat relief options are back to full capacity, and some of the emergency options provided last summer have been scaled back. Meanwhile, Phoenix has already broken heat records.

Christopher Pexton, medical director of Circle the City's downtown family health center, said he saw a surge of patients experiencing a mental health crisis in mid-June, when Phoenix saw temperatures hotter than 115 degrees for a record-setting six consecutive days, topping out at 118 degrees on June 17.

"I had people multiple times say, 'The heat's going to kill me this summer,'" he said.

Shade and an idle bus instead of the convention center

A man walks onto a parked city bus that is being used as a cooling station for the homeless near a large homeless encampment just outside downtown Phoenix as temperatures exceed 105 degrees on July 12, 2021.

The Phoenix Convention Center — the largest and most used indoor heat-relief option in downtown Phoenix last year — is not allowing people experiencing homelessness to take respite inside this summer.

Phoenix opened the south hall of the convention center beginning in May last year because many traditional heat-relief options, like libraries and community centers, were closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The city bused people from the Human Services Campus to the convention center and provided meals.

From May 31 to Sept. 30, people experiencing homelessness visited the convention center more than 27,000 times. That number includes people who came back multiple days. On average, 218 people stayed at the convention center daily.

"I can't imagine the number of lives that saved. There were a lot of people who spent their entire summer there," Pexton said. "That doesn't exist anymore."

The city did not open the convention center for heat relief this summer because conventions and meetings have returned to the center, Phoenix spokesperson Michael Hammett said.

There are nine events scheduled for the convention center in July and August, according to the city calendar. None are using all three buildings at any one time.

The efforts to replace the convention center heat relief have been tardy and scant in comparison.

The city funded a shade structure over the main lawn at the Human Services Campus and installed large coolers in June.

Human Services Campus Executive Director Amy Schwabenlender said many people have taken advantage of the new shade and thanked staff for the new amenity.

In early July, Phoenix Councilmember Yassamin Ansari pitched using out-of-circulation city buses as mobile cooling centers.

The city parked the "heat relief bus" outside of the Human Services Campus at 12th Avenue and Madison Street on July 7. It will stay there from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. every day through July 31. People can also stop by the bus to grab cold water.

Ansari said that she spent time handing out water and talking to people who live in the encampment on Madison Street in June and heard from some people who were uncomfortable going to the shaded lawn or inside one of the buildings on the Human Services Campus.

"We heard from a lot of concerned citizens in our district that we needed to meet people where they're at and provide additional aid," she said.

The city can deploy up to three buses to the area around the Human Services Campus. Staff on the bus are instructed to call for a backup bus if the first hits 20 people. During the first week, that never happened.

As of July 12, people had visited the bus 271 times. That number includes people who came on multiple days.

Ansari said the city is passing out flyers and making additional signage to make sure people know about the bus.

'Instant relief' or air quality concern?

Rick Myers stares out of the window of a parked city bus that is being used as a cooling station for the homeless near a large homeless encampment just outside downtown Phoenix as temperatures exceed 105 degrees on July 12, 2021.

Rick Myers, who goes by "Cowboy," was one of two people on the heat relief bus on Monday at 10:15 a.m. The temperature was just under 100 degrees outside, but the air conditioning roared loudly inside the bus.

Myers had been staying on the bus for several hours each day since it opened.

"My tent's just right here. This is instant relief. It is so hot," he said.

Myers, who has been experiencing homelessness for about a year, used the convention center last year. He said he preferred the bus because of its proximity.

"And it really is the coldest water around," he said. "If they served sandwiches, it would be perfect."

Green, who also lives in a tent a stone's throw from the bus, said it isn't his favorite place for heat relief.

"Staying out here in the heat, it's draining. Sometimes you're so tired, you can't get up out of (the tent). Even this walk from here to there can be draining," he said, pointing to the bus. "When you're sitting on the bus, you finally get that cold air and you kind of want to take a nap, but they don't let you fall asleep on there."

Trump said he hadn't heard about the bus. He'd seen it but thought it was broken down.

Toni Longo said she hadn't heard about the bus either, but didn't think she'd be able to go on it because of her pit bull, Gatti. Phoenix allows animals on the bus if they fit into a carrier and can be placed on the ground or owner's lap. Gatti is too big.

"This is like one of the only places to be (with Gatti)," she said, standing with her dog under a string of misters outside of Andre House.

Service providers on and around the Human Services Campus had mixed reactions to the cooling bus.

While they're appreciative Phoenix is providing more assistance, some people said they were concerned about air quality and encouraged the city to look for indoor space to shelter people instead.

The first bus parked near the campus, and just outside dozens of tents, was a diesel bus. Maricopa County's air pollution ordinances do not allow large diesel vehicles to idle for more than 60 minutes during a 90-minute period.

After about four hours, the city switched out the bus for a compressed natural gas bus "as a more environmentally friendly option and to reduce diesel vehicle idling," Phoenix spokesperson Stephanie Bracken said.

Ansari, who formerly served as a senior climate advisor at the United Nations, said she understood the environmental concerns and stressed this is a temporary, emergency solution.

"We'll make sure to monitor that, but I think keeping people alive at this point in time is the No. 1 priority," Ansari said.

Schwabenlender said there is space on the Human Services Campus for an outdoor cooling center with shade, misters, coolers and access to bathrooms. She said she's heard from some people who say they don't want to go to some of the other cooling locations because they can't bring all their possessions with them. An outdoor station would allow them flexibility to bring those items with them.

"I think it's great that city staff and elected officials are looking for heat relief options for people experiencing homelessness. Those of us here at the Human Services Campus have other ideas we'd love to brainstorm … about, some more environmentally friendly, safer, more dignified cooling options for people," Schwabenlender said.

Belated 'sprung structure'

On July 1, the Phoenix City Council approved the purchase of a $2.5 million "sprung structure" that can shelter people overnight during extreme heat.

A sprung structure is basically a massive outdoor tent with air conditioning and bathroom facilities. It can fit 100 people and will be located on the Human Services Campus during summer months for both daytime and overnight weather relief.

Schwabenlender had been asking the city and county for this type of structure since May of last year.

The council used federal pandemic relief dollars to finance the structure. It did not vote to approve it until almost a month after the first extreme heat warning in Phoenix, and staff said it is unlikely the structure will be ready before the end of September.

Council asked staff to speed up the deployment of the structure, but City Manager Ed Zuercher said supply chain issues are preventing the city from moving any quicker.

The structure will be ready for summer 2022.

New overnight relief

Ramondo Williams and Cameron Green hang out near Green's tent at a large homeless encampment just outside downtown Phoenix as temperatures exceed 105 degrees on July 12, 2021.

Last year, Maricopa County opened one of its vacant buildings near the Human Services Campus for 130 people to sleep overnight from July through September.

That building wasn't available this year. The county instead partnered with St. Vincent de Paul to fund an overnight heat relief shelter at the organization's family dining hall, about two miles south of the Human Services Campus.

St. Vincent de Paul spokesperson Marisol Saldivar said the dining hall is still only providing meals to go because of COVID-19 protocols so the massive building was vacant.

"It just seemed like a sin for this big air-conditioned space to go empty overnight when we could be bringing people inside," Saldivar said.

The temporary shelter opened on June 9 with 145 cots and has since scaled up to its full capacity of 200. Community Bridges Inc. provides transportation to and from the Human Services Campus.

In early July, 212 people showed up one night for shelter. St. Vincent de Paul opened up another room in the dining hall building for overflow.

"We just don't want to turn people away. If you turn someone away, you live with knowing they may not survive overnight," Saldivar said.

From June 9 to July 13, there were 4,748 stays at the shelter.

Saldivar said staff tries to get people at the temporary shelter into permanent housing so they don't have to go back to sleeping on the street after the shelter closes on Sept. 30.

"We had our first successful placement a week or two after opening the shelter," Saldivar said. "It would be wonderful if at the end of summer, we could say we placed hundreds of people into housing."

Why heat is so deadly for homeless

Extreme heat can be deadly for anyone, but it is particularly dangerous for people experiencing homelessness, who tend to be sicker than the general population, Pexton said.

At least a dozen chronic diseases can be worsened by heat exposure, including diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease, lung disease and liver disease.

"All of those (conditions) are really fragile, and when someone is in the heat, they can get dehydrated and … it can cause a pretty sensitive situation to turn dire," Pexton said.

It also is more dangerous to use drugs in the heat — particularly methamphetamine because it increases heart rates and causes dehydration, Pexton said.

Advanced age also increases the risk of extreme heat effects. Older people are more likely to have chronic conditions and less likely to survive the effects of extreme heat.

Senior homelessness is on the rise in Maricopa County, often because retired people on fixed incomes are priced out of their homes.

Pexton said he's seen an increase in patients in their 60s and 70s. Recently, the Phoenix Fire Department met with Circle the City and other organizations on the Human Services Campus to discuss an increase in calls for service in the area because people have fallen and can't get up.

The department received about 10 of those calls per day this summer, compared to one per day in past years, Pexton said. Most of the people who've fallen are elderly.

"There's just a sicker population out there than there has been historically, and that just makes this summer scarier," he said.

Margrieta Bell and Anthony Chambers hang out in Chambers' tent near a large homeless encampment just outside downtown Phoenix as temperatures exceed 105 degrees on July 12, 2021.

What about next summer?

Experts say the only way to prevent heat-related deaths is to provide daytime respite and overnight shelter that is accepting of all people and their possessions.

Ponisciak said many cooling places are open during the day and at night, but most of them have rules about the amount of possessions someone can bring inside. This keeps people outside because they fear their things will be stolen, Ponisciak said.

"To see the death right here is heartbreaking, so close to where the services are," he said.

Andre House applied for permission to open a "low-barrier shelter" — which would have allowed people to bring their pets and possessions inside — but the City Council shot it down earlier this year. There is no permanent low-barrier shelter in metro Phoenix.

Saldivar said the temporary weather-relief shelter is operating as a low-barrier shelter, and it's working to coax people into safer living conditions.

"We've seen people who haven't sought shelter inside before have a restful night of sleep with us now," she said.

Saldivar said she hopes the St. Vincent de Paul shelter can show that low-barrier shelters are safe and effective.

Pexton said that until there are housing opportunities for people "regardless of their employment status, immigration status, substance abuse status and mental health status, there's always going to be homelessness and there's always going to be people suffering the effects of what it's like to live outdoors."

"That's a big ask, but it's the only way to prevent these kinds of deaths," he said.

Ansari acknowledged that the city typically doesn't begin planning heat-relief options until a month or two before the summer heat hits. She committed to starting discussions this fall about how to prevent deaths next summer.

"We need to start these conversations way earlier that we usually do. We typically start in April or May when we're already too late at that point," Ansari said.

'It ain't hot; it's just all imagination'

Mind over matter seemed to be the prevailing heat survival technique in the downtown encampments.

"It's not that bad," is a common refrain about the heat. People say it with such force, it's as if they're trying to convince themselves.

When asked how he deals with the heat, Ramondo Williams said, "I believe in God. I let God take over my body, and I just do what I have to do to survive."

"And I always keep a (wet) towel on my head," he said.

One man sitting in the shade outside of Andre House got visibly agitated as people discussed the heat — like the discussion was distracting from his positive thinking.

"It ain't hot, it's just all imagination," he blurted out. "Just imagine you're out there, it's a cool breeze blowing through there."

Coverage of housing insecurity on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is supported by a grant from the Arizona Community Foundation.

Reach the reporter at jessica.boehm@gannett.com or 480-694-1823. Follow her on Twitter @jboehm_NEWS.

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