Being unhoused in any kind of weather isn’t easy, but 100 degree temperatures make it deadly for people experiencing homelessness in Arizona.
A Valley-wide heat relief campaign brought them roughly 809,000 water bottles, gave over 1,200 heat relief rides, and helped get 412 people indoors between May and the end of August this year.
In many cases, Sean Little with Phoenix Rescue Mission said the path from unsheltered homelessness to stable housing began with a bottle of water.
“Every bottle of water is another touch point for someone to build a relationship,” said Little. “And this summer we saw more rescues than we had ever seen previously. And truly, the need is so great.”
In the 12 years the Code: Red campaign has run, he said this summer’s extra-long stretch of 100-degree-plus days made it even more crucial.
“We’re transporting people to cooling stations because we know that that’s a matter of life and death,” Little said. “We bring water to people because we know that that's a matter of life and death. And so as the problem progresses, you just see the severity and the need is more of an emergency than it ever has been before.”
But making people feel seen and cared for, he added, has made the most difference.
“Think about anybody in your life that you’ve met for the first time,” said Little. “You’re skeptical, you have been an invisible person for so long, and then the same person keeps showing up time and time and time again. And you keep seeing that face, and they keep saying, ‘Hey, what can I do to help?’”
That trust can take days, months or even years to build up. Little said that was the case for one woman who recently accepted services after the same volunteer made a point to check up on her for three years.
“Three years, he never gave up on her, and she’s over nine months clean and living in one of our facilities,” said Little. “Not a lot of us have the patience for that, and yet what’s happening is that people just want to be seen.”
That kind of connection, he said, can often make the difference.
“We have seen a record in the amount of people that are going into short term and long term living facilities because of that relationship that's building,” said Little, “and also because of that need that has become so drastic.”
This summer has seen more rescues than ever, and Little said he expects next year to bring even more.
