For the dozens — if not hundreds — of people who live in camping tents on the streets near the Human Services Campus downtown, extreme heat can be deadly.
Starting Friday, the city of Phoenix is turning the convention center into an emergency heat shelter, allowing anybody with a Human Services Campus ID card to take shelter in the air-conditioned building. The St. Vincent de Paul Society will provide lunch and dinner.
Buses will stop at the Human Services Campus every hour to bring individuals to the convention center and drop them back off later in the evening.
The facility will be set up to allow for social distancing: tables and chairs will be spaced apart, and workers will deep-clean everything each evening.
2019 was a record year for heat-related deaths in Maricopa County, where at least 197 people died from heat-related issues.
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