{"id":1024946,"date":"2026-08-26T09:32:27","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T09:32:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1024946\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T09:32:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T09:32:27","slug":"philly-heat-and-homelessness-advocates-ask-city-to-do-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1024946\/","title":{"rendered":"Philly heat and homelessness: Advocates ask city to do more"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story is part of the WHYY News Climate Desk<\/a>, bringing you news and solutions for our changing region.\n<\/p>\n

From the Poconos to the Jersey Shore to the mouth of the Delaware Bay, what do you want to know about climate change? What would you like us to cover? Get in touch<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

In early July, when the temperature soared above 100 degrees in Philadelphia for three consecutive days, Barbara Lear slept outside.\n<\/p>\n

Lear has been homeless since February, when the sister she\u2019d been living with moved. Since then, Lear has grown frustrated with the shelter system, which she describes as unsanitary and unpredictable. Several times, Lear said she has traveled to a shelter where she\u2019d been told a bed would be open, only to find out the bed had been taken. Now, she mostly sleeps outdoors.\n <\/p>\n

During the heat wave<\/a> in early July, the city extended hours at dozens of libraries, rec centers and partner organizations to serve as cooling centers<\/a> during the day, suspended utility shutoffs and advised residents to use air conditioners due to the \u201cdangerously high heat index values.\u201d Outside, the muggy heat made Lear\u2019s asthma worse, until finally, she struggled to breathe and was forced to seek help at a hospital for steroids.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can get so hot outside that I can barely breathe,\u201d said Lear, who is a member of the Philly Homeless Union<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

Unhoused Philadelphians like Lear face increasingly dangerous summers, as human-caused climate change fuels heat waves<\/a> and the conditions for wildfires<\/a> that can blanket the city with smoke.\n<\/p>\n

A group of advocates, service providers and people experiencing homelessness, including Lear, says the city needs to do more to keep unhoused Philadelphians safe during heat waves and periods of poor air quality. The group, called the Good Works Coalition, wrote an open letter to Mayor Cherelle Parker\u2019s administration<\/a> earlier this summer calling for a 24\/7 \u201cheat respite-and-navigation\u201d site during the summer, better communication about cooling centers and safer, cleaner shelter conditions. It called for the city to provide resources during extreme heat similar to those provided during extreme cold.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re learning as we go that the heat emergencies are as dangerous as cold emergencies,\u201d said Dr. Trisha Acri, director of Courage Medicine, which provides medical services in Philadelphia mainly to people experiencing homelessness<\/a>. \u201cI think we\u2019re learning that we need more resources in the summer, just like we have in the winter.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Cheryl Hill, executive director of the city\u2019s Office of Homeless Services, said that the Good Works Coalition had \u201cgreat ideas,\u201d and that her office is currently evaluating best practices and determining whether it needs to do more during extreme heat. But she pushed back against the idea that the city is failing to provide adequate resources, saying the Parker administration has added hundreds of shelter beds<\/a> this year as part of the mayor\u2019s bid to end street homelessness<\/a>, and has increased monitoring of shelter conditions.
\n\"James52-year-old James Sanders sleeps outside when Philadelphia\u2019s weather is tolerable, but tries to find shelter inside when summer nights get too hot. (Sophia Schmidt\/WHYY)\n<\/p>\n

The dangers of living outside during extreme heat and poor air quality<\/p>\n

James Sanders has been homeless for \u201ca long time.\u201d The 52-year-old said he sleeps outside when Philadelphia\u2019s weather is tolerable, but tries to find shelter inside when summer nights get too hot.\n<\/p>\n

While waiting for placement in an emergency shelter bed outside of the Mike Hinson Resource Center in North Philadelphia this month, Sanders said he passed out, and another man waiting in line called an ambulance.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t take the heat,\u201d Sanders said. \u201cI was tired.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

People experiencing homelessness are at especially high risk for life-threatening complications from heat because of their constant exposure and, often, underlying health conditions, said Dr. Kraftin Schreyer, director of clinical operations for Temple Health\u2019s emergency department.\n<\/p>\n

This summer, unhoused patients have come into Temple\u2019s emergency department with symptoms ranging from mild dehydration and fatigue to heat stroke and severe hyperthermia, Schreyer said. Staff at Arch Street United Methodist Church\u2019s daytime service center have had to call ambulances for unhoused guests experiencing heat-related illness, including dehydration and cardiovascular issues, said Tess Feiler, the church\u2019s director of congregational and community development.
\n\"aMen often wait outside of the Michael Hinson resource center for shelter placement in the heat. (Sophia Schmidt\/WHYY)\n<\/p>\n

Without fast treatment, heat stroke can cause organ damage.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cExtreme heat is uncomfortable. For a lot of us, that\u2019s kind of all it is,\u201d Schreyer said. \u201cBut for people \u2026 out in the elements, this is a really serious potential health threat.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Heat poses an even greater danger for unhoused people who use drugs. Acri said Philadelphia\u2019s current drug supply is severely sedating, which can make it hard for people to take basic steps to stay safe, like sitting in the shade.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThey may fall asleep in the sunlight, they may fall asleep outside and not have any ability to protect themselves from the weather,\u201d Acri said.\n<\/p>\n

Climate change, driven primarily by humans burning fossil fuels, worsens conditions. Philadelphia\u2019s average summer temperature has trended up roughly 3 degrees Fahrenheit over the last 100 years, according to a WHYY News analysis of federal weather data.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story is part of the WHYY News Climate Desk, bringing you news and solutions for our changing…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1024947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,3884,191002,1448,2830,1311,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,49740],"class_list":["post-1024946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-america","tag-heat-waves","tag-homelessness-in-greater-philadelphia","tag-pa","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-whyy-news-climate-desk"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117161124851756239","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1024946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1024946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1024946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1024947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1024946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1024946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1024946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}