Cooling centers offer a lifeline to homeless Arizonans as extreme heat continues

An extreme heat warning remains in effect through Sunday. Highs are expected to be above 110 degrees throughout the next week in Phoenix, and the National Weather Service warns those temperatures pose health risks to most people.

Cooling centers across the Valley are seeing high demand.

At the First Church - United Church of Christ in downtown Phoenix, respite center staff say lately there have been lines at the door before the space even opens up in the mornings.

A little before noon on Wednesday, it’s 106 degrees outside. Inside, about 20 people are resting on mats on the floor of the event hall serving as the heat relief site. Some have dogs with them. Some are sleeping. Some are scrolling on phones.

Jonathan Nelson is eating a snack, staying cool near a big fan.

“I come in every day because the heat is really, really bad,” Nelson says. “I’ve been in the hospital because of the heat, kidney failure because of the heat.”

Nelson says he has lived in Phoenix his whole life, and he’s been homeless for about 15 years. But he says this has been one of the hardest summers he’s lived through.

Even though rain has brought July temperatures down a little, the storms have pushed humidity up — Nelson says that’s worse.

He says he was just discharged from the hospital a few days ago after being treated for extreme dehydration. Without this respite center that allows him to cool off for several hours at a time, he says he wouldn’t be able to survive.

“I’d be dead, honestly,” Nelson says. “I’d probably be dead from the heat.”

That fear runs through Arene Rushdan’s mind, too. She’s community resilience program manager with the Arizona Faith Network, which manages this heat relief site and a dozen others across the Valley.

“Any health condition that they already have, heat exacerbates everything,” Rushdan says.

Most visitors to Arizona Faith Network’s heat relief sites are homeless, and Rushdan says they are often physically exhausted from heat exposure and lack of sleep when they arrive.

“They don’t get rest outside because it’s unsafe,” Rushdan says.

People experiencing homelessness make up less than 1% of the Valley’s population, but they have accounted for nearly half of Maricopa County’s heat-related deaths for the past three years, according to data from the Maricopa County Department of Public Health.

Last year, there were 430 heat-related deaths in Maricopa County — a 30% reduction from the previous year. Officials say increased access to public heat relief sites like this one is part of the reason for the year-over-year decrease in fatalities.

The number of people experiencing homelessness in the Valley has also shown signs of leveling off recently after years of fast growth.

In spite of some positive trends, visitors and staffers at this respite center say this summer’s extreme heat remains an urgent threat to unhoused people.

So far this year in Maricopa County, 40 heat-related deaths have been confirmed with 388 more deaths under investigation. Those numbers are a 36% increase from the same point last summer.

“That’s one of the things that really worries me, when I see these temperatures go way up,” Rushdan says. “I’m thinking about, ‘Oh my god, are we going to lose anyone?’”