Clarence Braun and his wife, Holly, park their Mercury Grand Marquis in the shade or drive with the windows down when the weather gets hot.
My air conditioner isn’t working properly. “If I can find some shade, I just drive,” Braun remarked.
For over two years, Braun has been living out of his car due to his lack of housing. He understands that Connecticut summers are getting hotter and that he needs to attempt to stay cool in a variety of ways.
Braun was at the Connecticut Harm Reduction Alliance in Hartford on a recent Wednesday afternoon. In periods of intense heat, it serves as a cooling center.
The lobby’s folding table is arranged with cold sliced sandwiches and bottles of vitamin water, while the TV is playing a playlist of soul music from the middle of the 20th century.
For the past four years, Braun has been coming to the facility around once a week. He has his hair pulled back in a ponytail and is dressed in a red short-sleeved polo shirt today. He still wears the wristband from a recent hospital stay.
According to Braun, a resident of Moodus, it’s not always simple to go to the cooling centers if you don’t live in a big city, even if many homeless people and those without air conditioning can find comfort from the heat there. He must therefore occasionally look for alternatives.
Here, some areas have a little air conditioning, Braun stated. If you truly need to chill off, McDonald’s has air conditioning. They tolerate it to a certain extent, even though they don’t particularly like it.
Housing is the real answer.
Temperatures in Connecticut are rising due to the climate catastrophe, and prolonged episodes of intense heat are becoming more frequent. The effects of intense heat are felt more acutely by homeless people, and the state’s response to the shelter crisis is inadequate.
Mark Jenkins, the founder of the Connecticut Harm Reduction Alliance, claims that cooling facilities are short-term fixes that don’t deal with the underlying problem.
Ultimately, Jenkins stated, “there is still just a lack of housing.” Therefore, there is a higher need for housing, whether it is affordable housing or housing for the unsheltered. The need has grown over the last many years and is now growing at an exponential rate.
However, Connecticut depends on town buildings and community advocates to keep homeless people cool until additional housing becomes available.
According to Jenkins, the implementation of the state’s excessive heat procedure quickly depletes resources. In hot weather, the center turns into a spinning door.
Yesterday, we brought in a pallet of water. It’s most likely virtually gone. According to Jenkins, that’s 48 cases of 40 bottles in a 12-hour period.
There were still around two cases of water.
During a heat wave, Jenkins must hire 15 more staff members for five more hours each day in order to keep the center open longer.
“Well, that’s a lot of money,” you remark now. Why are you squandering that cash? However, there is a cost for emergency services if you do the opposite and fail to offer those services, and you have people who are experiencing heat stroke or fainting on the streets, Jenkins stated.
CT’s varying reactions to severe weather
The Connecticut extreme heat protocol was created in 2021 and is activated when a multi-day heat wave with temperatures above 90 degrees for at least three days in a row is predicted to hit the state.
Since its inception, the heat protocol has been activated more frequently. It was passed twice in 2021 and 2022. It was passed three times in 2023 and 2024.
This year, the heat protocol was implemented four times by the end of July. Additionally, the first heat wave arrived earlier.
Connecticut’s Director of Emergency Management, Bill Turner, said the state’s heat response is more of a guideline for towns and localities to follow.
Whether a town decides to open a cooling facility is entirely up to them. According to Turner, we essentially advise them of the features that a cooling center ought to have.
In order to guarantee that homeless people are taken inside during the winter, the state collaborates more closely with local governments on cold weather protocols. However, Turner noted that during heat waves, there are no overnight shelters.
Connecticut’s cold weather policy is funded by the state, allowing shelters to offer beds every night. State funding for hot weather situations is nonexistent.
Only local providers provide funding for all emergency heat care.
A shift in how heat is addressed
Sarah Fox, CEO of the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness, stated that policymakers and activists must alter their approach to the state’s management of high heat.
“That’s where we’re going,” Fox stated, acknowledging that it’s naive to simply assert that we require a cold weather emergency response when we actually need an extreme weather emergency response throughout the state.
As is done during cold weather situations, Fox suggested that Connecticut create a statewide infrastructure that links providers in various regions of the state.
As we continue to advocate for the future, we will primarily focus on addressing extreme weather, acknowledging that we have the means necessary to combat both high heat and severe cold. Fox.
Although Connecticut’s state budget now includes guaranteed financing for cold weather crises for the first time, Fox noted that heat is still not taken into consideration. Additionally, more than $1 million less was allocated for cold weather, which will result in fewer shelter beds during cold weather and higher staff fatigue throughout the year.
The state’s 211 helpline got almost 1,600 online queries for cooling centers during a heat wave in mid-July. Of the 169 towns and communities in the state, only 83 have cooling centers.
