More than 6% of residents don’t have air conditioning in South Dallas census tracts stretching from Fair Park to the Trinity River, according to estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau released this year. In one piece of downtown Dallas between Pacific Avenue and Young Street, 7.6% of residents have no air conditioning — the highest in the county.
That lack of temperature control has been particularly brutal in recent weeks, as daily highs have soared past 100 degrees in late July and most of August. That intense heat, combined with a lack of rain, has made it difficult to find relief.
While many North Texans think of air conditioning as standard, for about 14,000 Dallas County households, or 1.4% of homes, that’s not the case. It’s a bit more prevalent in the county than statewide, as about 1% of Texas houses do not have air conditioning.
The absence of relief from extreme temperatures isn’t just unpleasant; it’s often dangerous. Intense heat can exacerbate chronic health conditions, such as asthma, diabetes, congestive heart failure and neurodegenerative diseases. It can also lead to heatstroke, a medical emergency that can occur when the body’s temperature rises to 104 degrees, damaging the brain, heart and kidneys.
For some of the county’s more affluent neighborhoods, this problem has been eliminated, according to census bureau estimates. 100% of households have air conditioning in 11 census tracts across the county, including parts of the Park Cities, North Dallas and Las Colinas.
To see how many of your neighbors don’t have air conditioning, explore the map below: