“I call it a hell on earth, but it’s preventable and avoidable,” Thomas said.
It was 90 degrees outside, and Thomas was sitting at a table on the first floor of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, referring to how he handles the heat while experiencing homelessness.
Thomas, who asked to be referred to by a pseudonym to maintain his privacy while living outside, spends his days in the library and his nights just outside its doors. He told Street Sense he’s tried staying in shelters, but they negatively impacted his mental health. “That’s why I stay at MLK during even the coldest and hottest nights,” he added.
The MLK Jr. Memorial Library is one of the sites D.C.’s 2024 Heat Emergency Plan identifies as a cooling center in the event of a heat emergency, when the heat index (how it feels when taking into account air temperature and humidity) reaches 95º or higher. The plan is meant to address the risks faced by people experiencing homelessness during extreme heat, with cooling centers opening to provide refuge. That resource may be especially important this year — eight heat emergencies have been declared since the start of June, and D.C. has seen some of its hottest temperatures on record.
The Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency (HSEMA) develops the plan each year and incorporates feedback from D.C.’s Interagency Council on Homelessness (ICH), which consolidates input from community members on the previous year’s plan. The District implements the plan through the Department of Human Services and HSEMA.
When the District announces a heat emergency, cooling centers around the city, including low-barrier shelters — shelters with minimal requirements for entry — recreation centers, public libraries, and public pools, are supposed to provide people with relief from high temperatures. In the past, Street Sense has found only a fraction of the listed cooling centers were open during heat emergencies.
This year, Street Sense reporters found 38 — just over two-thirds — of the listed cooling centers are confirmed to be open during a heat emergency. Reporters called the 53 low barrier shelters, day centers, senior and youth centers, and recreation centers included in the plan, and, after identifying themselves as reporters, asked whether the public could come in to cool off.
Another eight centers are open for cooling during heat emergencies, but either have shorter hours than listed in the plan or limit the amount of time someone can come in to cool off. Staff at three locations listed in the heat plan told Street Sense reporters they were not open as cooling centers this year, and another four did not respond to multiple phone calls or redirected reporters to a number that could not confirm the information in the plan.
Eight of the 38 cooling sites Street Sense confirmed to be fully open are only open to seniors or youth aged 18-24, narrowing the options for adults experiencing homelessness. The nine low-barrier shelters, while open to adults, are usually only available to people who already have a bed there, and shelters have been nearly full in recent months.
In addition to the seasonal cooling centers, 26 public libraries are open for cooling seven days a week. The plan also includes public pools and spray parks, but reporters did not contact those sites because they do not have options for cooling beyond water.
The number of places to cool down shrinks on the weekends and after 7 p.m. On Sundays, there are only six cooling centers open throughout the city — and of those, one only serves youth, two only serve women over 18, and two only serve men over 18. The public libraries listed on the heat plan are open on Sunday, but only between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. and heat emergencies often last far beyond these hours.
There are also disparities by ward: Ward 5 has 12 cooling sites in contrast to Ward 3, which has only two, neither of which are open after 9 p.m. or on Sunday. Only Ward 4, Ward 5, and Ward 7 have over five open cooling centers. Ward 1, Ward 2, and Ward 3 have three or fewer centers Street Sense could confirm were open.
D.C. is around 68 square miles large, so with 38 open cooling shelters and 26 public libraries, the city has around one site to cool down at for every square mile. Willie, a vendor with Street Sense, spoke about the issues the geographic distribution of cooling shelters can create for people experiencing homelessness.
“I’ve seen the map, there is a lot of space between the cooling centers,” he said. These distances can create difficulties for people who face mobility issues or cannot access public transportation to get to a center far away.
“Walking, especially if someone is [disabled], older — three to five to six streets — a couple of blocks in this heat is a lot, with the cars, just with it being in the beginning of the summer,” Willie said.
The 2024 plan states transportation is available to shelters, but a person will only be picked up if a bed is available. People can call 311 or the shelter hotline at (202) 399-7093 to request free transportation to a shelter.
The plan also says that during an extended heat emergency — a protocol HSEMA implemented this year — the District may deploy “additional accessible transportation” to cooling centers and shelters.
Beating the heat while homeless
Beyond limited availability, the District’s plan does not account for the specific challenges faced by people who are currently unhoused. Many facilities have limitations on how many belongings someone can bring with them. For example, public libraries, while reliably open every day, have a strict two-bag limit. Thomas copes with this rule by leaving his possessions outside the MLK Jr. Library underneath a tarp.
They’ve been lost, stolen, or thrown away multiple times. Brett Schuster, an outreach specialist at Pathways to Housing, explained many people who live outside or in encampments are faced with the difficult decision of suffering in the heat or leaving their possessions behind.
“I’d say the most prominent challenge is for people who live outside, their belongings are really everything to them, and it can be a choice of going into a cooling center or staying at your spot to make sure your belongings aren’t stolen or anything happens to them, and I think that’s really an underrated aspect that goes unnoticed in the unhoused population,” Schuster said.
Other safety recommendations for heat emergencies listed on the ReadyDC website, like drinking water, wearing light clothing, and paying attention to signs of heat exhaustion, can be impossible for people currently experiencing homelessness.
“The District’s recommendations are very common sense, but to our unhoused population they are not afforded the luxury of being able to follow those guidelines,” Schuster said.
The availability of cooling centers is only half the challenge — communication also poses another hurdle. Schuster noted the city often provides only short notice for pop-up cooling centers, transportation services, and extended hours. If these sites could be standardized, he said, it would help unhoused residents know where to find them. Willie agreed and said it was on the city and other providers to do active outreach about the availability of cooling shelters and other resources.
“Communication is key in all sorts of emergency events, always more communication. And accountability, check in with people, it doesn’t just stop with setting it up, checking in once. Do you guys need more supplies, is anyone there with you, understand the issue more completely, and act accordingly,” Willie said.
When asked about how the city could improve its cooling services, Thomas stressed that in some ways, cooling centers are a band-aid trying to treat the much larger issue of homelessness.
“It’s not just a one-season thing,” Thomas said.
Extended heat emergencies
Each year, HSEMA and ICH ask for feedback from community members who used or worked at spaces designated as cooling centers to improve the plan for the following year. ICH then reviews a copy of the plan in the spring and provides further advice, said Theresa Silla, ICH’s executive director.
This year’s plan implemented a new protocol for an extended heat emergency, which is activated when the National Weather Service (NWS) expects the temperature during the day to reach 95 degrees for at least four days straight. The extended heat emergency can also be activated if NWS issues a heat warning for the District or expects an overnight heat index of at least 80 degrees.
Silla said HSEMA “proactively developed” the extended heat emergency plan while implementing cooling buses, unused WMATA buses with the A/C on, in 2023. During an extended heat emergency, the District may deploy cooling buses to specific locations, extend hours for cooling sites, and deploy other support resources, the 2024 plan states.
“HSEMA was thinking about, what are overnight temperatures that might be dangerous and that we need cooling support around,” Silla said. Street Sense found there are only nine sites open past 9 p.m. listed on the heat plan, but the extended heat emergency section of the plan notes the city could extend the hours at other sites if needed.
During the extended heat emergency in June, for instance, the city operated six cooling buses and had extended hours at some day centers.
What to do in a heat emergency
Residents can sign up for text or email updates on heat and other inclement weather on the AlertDC website.
Residents should be alert for signs of heat cramps, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke. Muscle cramps are an early sign someone is too hot and should be treated by finding shade, resting, drinking fluids and electrolytes, and gently stretching the area of the cramp, according to the CDC.
Heat exhaustion is more severe and can look like headaches, nausea, dizziness, sweating, weakness, thirst, irritability, elevated body temperature, and pale, ashen, or flushed skin according to both the CDC and ReadyDC. If someone is suffering from heat exhaustion, they should move to the shade or inside, drink water, and remove extra clothing. They should also monitor their symptoms and call 911 or visit an emergency room if they lose consciousness, become confused, or are unable to drink water.
If heat exhaustion is ignored, it can turn into heat stroke, which is life-threatening. The signs of heat stroke include extremely high body temperature, loss of consciousness, confusion or slurred speech, seizures, vomiting, rapid or weak pulse, and rapid or shallow breathing according to the CDC and ReadyDC. If someone is experiencing heat stroke, they should call 911 and immediately apply a cool compress. Do not drink water while experiencing a heat stroke.
