![]() Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. When the temperature spikes and requests for AC pour in, he says he'll be ready. In fact, he created a stockpile and a whole safety team. LUDDEN: Despite a tight budget, last year, Davie did also allocate a million dollars for air conditioners, and he's getting more through a city clean energy fund. IAN DAVIE: Tips for staying cool, how to identify heat-related illnesses, and then, in a more acute context, what to do if someone is feeling ill, including calling 911. He says the study makes clear they need to educate residents about heat safety. ![]() Ian Davie is with Home Forward, which manages the apartments in Portland. And when researchers sent phone alerts to warn people, some found that annoying and turned it off. LUDDEN: Still, some apartments reached 90 degrees or more. And, in fact, those were the units that were consistently as cool as those that had the mechanical air conditioning systems. VIVEK SHANDAS: Their units were remarkably cool throughout the day and night. LUDDEN: Researcher Vivek Shandas of Portland State University says when people used things like that, it made a big difference. And the only time I see sunlight in my apartment is when one of the cats gets in the window sill. And like I say, those drapes, they were a godsend. Or people like Chris Harris just preferred to do without.ĬHRIS HARRIS: I've got the fan. Tenants complained AC units were too noisy, too bulky. Portland studied indoor heat in public housing last summer. LUDDEN: Others with AC units don't always like them, either. NASEVA: It's leaking, and it's - the floor gets wet. Plus, the unit is noisy and doesn't fit well in her window. LUDDEN: Manhattan resident Vera Naseva is 73 and says even that little extra would force her to cut back on food. VERA NASEVA: I told them then they can take it, so. Now, the housing agency says starting in October, those tenants must pay $8 a month or give back their AC. When COVID hit, the mayor used pandemic aid to give free ACs to 16,000 public housing residents. Meanwhile, a lot of local housing agencies are cash strapped and say they can't fund individual ACs. It also recently clarified that local housing agencies can spend federal money for air conditioning, though only for common areas, not individual apartments. LUDDEN: The Department of Housing and Urban Development declined an interview but says it is exploring options for a cooling requirement. It is unsafe and inhumane to expect people to live without air conditioning. Affordable housing providers pushed back hard, saying they had no money to make it happen.īERNAL: I get that. Then, for the past two years, Bernal proposed bills to mandate or at least encourage this across Texas, but they failed. The city of San Antonio helped put up money to get AC units for all public housing residents. LUDDEN: Bernal, a Democrat, set out to change it. I mean, I knew all kinds of kids who came from there. And I was embarrassed because not only do I know my city, not only do I represent the area, but it also is across the street from my middle school. But no - 2,000 public housing residents there had no air conditioner and could not afford to get one.ĭIEGO BERNAL: And it blew my mind. ![]() He assumed hers was broken and said, I'll get it fixed. ![]() A few years ago, someone who lived in public housing in San Antonio told him how brutal the heat was with no AC. LUDDEN: Texas State Representative Diego Bernal remembers the moment he learned this. ![]() Deborah Thrope of the National Housing Law Project says when people do get their own air conditioner, they mostly pay for it themselves.ĭEBORAH THROPE: That's when we start seeing families paying well above 30% of their income in rent, which makes these programs less affordable. Many tenants get an allowance for utilities like heat, but it does not cover AC. LUDDEN: Most public housing is decades old, often built before central air, and it'd be incredibly expensive to add that now. VANSMITH: I was sitting like this most of the time next to it because it really only cooled, like, right here. LUDDEN: She borrowed a portable AC from her sister, a huge relief, even though she says it was itty-bitty. She has heart disease and remembers how awful she felt with no air conditioner in temperatures up to 116.īETH VANSMITH: I mean, I would get dizzy. JENNIFER LUDDEN, BYLINE: When deadly heat hit the Pacific Northwest two years ago, some who died were residents of public housing in Portland. But for people who live in public housing, many who are older and chronically ill, that's just not always possible, You see, as NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports, there's no federal mandate that these buildings have AC. And as heat waves get worse, air conditioning feels like a must have. The month of July has broken records with extremely high temperatures all across the U.S. ![]()
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