Possible record high temperatures in Boston pose unique risk to unhoused people – The Boston Globe

These sweltering temperatures are especially hard on some of the city’s most vulnerable, unhoused residents, advocates said, and while the city continues to map out its heat resilience plan, homeless shelters are stepping up.

“The things we’re warned about are much more of an issue when you don’t have the option to come inside,” said Barbara Trevisan, vice president of marketing and communications at Pine Street Inn, a local shelter that offers people who are homeless job training and connections to employment, and help finding and retaining housing.

The city is aware that this heat disproportionately affects Boston’s homeless population and has drawn up a plan to create more equitable solutions, said Stacia Sheputa, director of communications and community engagement for the mayor’s Office of Environment, Energy, and Open Space. But the proposed strategies are not set to be fully implemented for at least another four years.

In the meantime, the Boston Public Health Commission and local homeless shelters are working to support the city’s homeless population in the hot weather.

A spokesperson from the commission shared a list of year-round shelters and resources, including locations at 112 Southampton St. near Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard, or Mass. and Cass; 794 Massachusetts Ave. in the South End; the Engagement Center on Atkinson Street in West Roxbury; and the Pine Street Inn in the South End.

“The Boston Public Health Commission works closely with a network of shelter providers to ensure there is adequate shelter, food, and cool respite from the heat for individuals experiencing homelessness,” a BPHC spokesperson wrote in a statement to The Globe.

The BPHC also operates a van service from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday to transport individuals to and from seven shelters that are open during the day.

Meanwhile, several homeless shelters across the city, like the Pine Street Inn, are offering aid and cool shelter to homeless community members so that they can escape the heat and stay hydrated.

During the day, the Pine Street Inn sends a team on foot around Boston to check in with the city’s homeless population. The team distributes water, sunscreen, bug spray, and medical attention as needed, and offers to bring people inside an air-conditioned shelter. Inside, people can receive help filling out housing applications and searching for jobs. At night, the Pine Street Inn deploys vans of workers to check on homeless people throughout Boston who sleep outside. The nighttime drivers carry food, water, and occasionally a medical staff to aid homeless people.

While the Pine Street Inn’s services typically receive more attention in the winter, Trevisan said they are just as important in the summer.

“We do our work every day of the year,” Trevisan said. “People often think of us in super cold weather, but extreme heat is as much of a concern as cold, if not more.”

The work is part of an ongoing effort to get people off of streets and into homes, Trevisan said, and climate change is just another variable that those helping unhoused people must address.

Climate change has caused extreme heat, poor air quality, and increased humidity across the world. Average temperatures in Massachusetts have increased by almost 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit since the beginning of the 20th century, and over the last decade, Boston experienced more hot days and nights than any decade in the previous 50 years, according to the city’s website.

Braving the heat is easier for those who have access to air conditioning or fans, but for those without any shelter, a scorching day can be dangerous, and even deadly.

Though extreme heat and poor air quality affect everyone, health risks increase with exposure, Trevisan said. The more time a person spends in dangerously hot temperatures or unhealthy air, the higher the risk of complications such as heat exhaustion, cramps, edema, asthma, and heart attacks. These environments also worsen existing cardiovascular and respiratory conditions, among others, and negatively impact mental health.

Melissa Guardaro, assistant research professor at Arizona State University’s School of Sustainability near Phoenix, which is on pace to become the first major US city to hit an average monthly temperature above 100 degrees, said overnight temperatures need to be below 85 degrees Fahrenheit for safety.

“When our low temperatures overnight are very high, for people who are unsheltered, it is very hard for people to cope with that physiologically,” Guardaro said, adding that extreme heat also degrades air quality by raising the ozone level.

Guardaro said that in Arizona, there is a “Heat Relief Network” that offers cool shelter to homeless citizens and residents without air conditioning during the day. Additionally, ASU deploys a team of people to make sure that those who are unsheltered stay hydrated and have cooling towels, according to Guardaro.

Guardaro said that it is important that safe, affordable, livable housing is accessible to all, because even residents without air conditioning in their homes are suffering from the heat too.

“We really need to pay attention to extreme heat as a threat multiplier,” Guardaro said. “We need to understand that every heat death is totally avoidable, but we need to change our systems so that we can watch out for the most vulnerable populations.”

The city of Boston is hoping to bring relief to communities who don’t have access to cool shelter in the summer months with its Heat Resilience Solutions plan, a report the city publicized on Earth Day in April 2022. This plan proposes increasing the amount of trees on the north sides of streets to increase shade, and implementing lighter colored roofs on buildings to absorb less heat, among other plans.

Sheputa said that as a part of this plan, the city has created an Extreme Temperatures Response Task Force to provide pop-up cooling support for 30 community organizations, and is working to develop a new Cool Roof Grant program to help ease the impact of the heat.

The city’s plan details that it would take at least five years for its proposed heat resilience strategies to be fully implemented.

Maggie Scales can be reached at maggie.scales@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @scales_maggie. Vivi Smilgius can be reached at vivi.smilgius@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @viviraye.