After a deadly heat wave last summer, metro Phoenix is changing tactics

PHOENIX — Terrified of being attacked in a shelter, Pearl Marion couch surfed with relatives and friends during last year’s sweltering summer so she wouldn’t have to sleep outside.

This year, the 65-year-old woman plans to spend Phoenix’s dangerously hot summer evenings in a former cafeteria of the city’s main library, sleeping in a chair with her head on a table. There is cool air, chilled water and security guards to prevent anyone from stealing her bus pass.

“I love this place,” Marion said from the room where half a dozen other people were napping and charging their phones. Newcomers were asked if they needed help with housing, substance abuse or air conditioning repairs.

It is one of two overnight shelters that opened in early May after Maricopa County saw a whopping 645 heat-related deaths last year, about 50% more than the 425 confirmed for 2022.

Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs declared a state of emergency in 2023 after metro Phoenix experienced a 31-day streak of temperatures that reached at least 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 degrees Celsius). The high temperature in Phoenix has already reached 100 F (37.7 C) several times this year.

“People need cooling centers to be open longer hours and on weekends,” said Dr. Rebecca Sunenshine, medical director of the Maricopa County Department of Public Health. “The other important piece we learned is that people need help finding cooling centers and other heat relief resources. ”

The record number of deaths came as Maricopa County led the nation in growth amid a housing crisis with higher rents and more evictions. As the homeless population grew to more than 9,600 nationwide last year, climate change caused temperatures to rise.

Maricopa County’s first heat-related death of 2023 was recorded on April 11 when 42-year-old Crystal Gradilla was found in a tent in a desert area when high temperatures reached 99°F (37.2°C).

In mid-summer 2023, the county medical examiner’s office reported that the body storage facility was nearly full and placed 10 refrigerated trucks on standby. While the additional storage was not necessary, it was clear that more needed to be done, especially to protect the homeless population who are responsible for 45% of deaths in Arizona’s most populous county.

This year, no heat-related deaths have been reported in Maricopa County from 2024 through April.

This year, officials in Phoenix, Maricopa County and Arizona are working to better protect people.

Arizona has a new heat official – Dr. Eugene Livar, the first such position in the US – to implement the governor’s extreme heat plan. Phoenix appointed the nation’s first district heating officer in 2021.

At least two cold storage facilities in metro Phoenix will operate overnight, and others will have extended hours, including on some weekend days.

A call center staffed by 30 bilingual community health workers is tasked with helping people find the centers, pay electricity bills and repair cooling units in homes.

In recent years, the 170 cooling centers throughout metro Phoenix were typically closed from May to October when the workday ended at 5 p.m. due to high temperatures.

Arizona has mobile solar-powered units made from shipping containers that can be moved as needed.

Officials and health care workers hope fewer homeless people will die this summer after a court order forced the city to clear an encampment in downtown Phoenix known as “The Zone,” where up to 1,200 people gathered under the blazing sun.

Hundreds went to shelters or found housing. About 150 people moved with their tents to a nearby structured campsite on a plot of land the city had purchased.

People staying there are searched by guards for drugs, alcohol and weapons. There are toilets, showers and an air-conditioned warehouse where up to 200 people can eat and escape the heat.

Hundreds of additional bed spaces have been gradually added in metro Phoenix in recent years. There are accommodations with more than 900 beds on a large campus in the center. St. Vincent de Paul is completing a nearby 100-bed shelter for older adults, military veterans and the disabled, which will open this summer.

Maricopa County’s annual count of homeless people in January showed the population slightly smaller than the year before; more than half now sleep in shelters.

Although Phoenix is ​​known for its heat, some Arizona communities are getting even hotter.

The state high of 128°F (53.3°C) was recorded on June 29, 1994 in Lake Havasu City. In southwestern Yuma County, Dario Mendoza, a 26-year-old farm worker died on July 20 after collapsing in a field when high temperatures reached 116°F (46.6°C).

Last year, Pima County, home to Tucson, Arizona’s second-most populous city, saw 176 heat-related deaths and another 51 such deaths in the five additional rural counties the medical examiner covers.

Dr. Pima County Chief Medical Examiner Greg Hess said his office can better track and categorize heat-related deaths after hiring an epidemiologist and adding a new online dashboard.

Hess said tracking and publicizing heat-related deaths can lead to change, just as tracking fatal overdoses has launched the fight against the opioid crisis.

“Investigating heat deaths must be intentional,” he said.