Phoenix will open convention center for homeless heat relief. Is it enough to save lives?

Phoenix will bus people living on the streets near downtown to the south hall of the Phoenix Convention Center where they can take respite in the air conditioning during excessive heat warnings, Mayor Kate Gallego announced. 

The convention center heat relief program will begin Friday, two days after an excessive heat warning from the National Weather Service. On Thursday, the temperature hit 109 degrees. 

Roughly 500 people live in tents and sleeping bags outside of the Human Services Campus west of downtown Phoenix. They either can't get — or don't want — one of the roughly 400 shelter spaces on the campus, which are full virtually every night.

About 200 of those people moved into fenced parking lots, funded by Maricopa County, where each person is given a 12-foot-by-12-foot space, outlined with paint, to promote social distancing. An additional 100 or so are still scattered in tents around the campus. 

Because of the social distancing requirements of COVID-19, the Human Services Campus cannot provide its typical overnight weather relief shelter. And because libraries, community centers and other public buildings are closed, most people experiencing homelessness have nowhere to go during the day to cool off, either. 

Gallego's announcement was welcomed by service providers and other government officals, but with a caveat that even she acknowledged — it's still not enough. 

Meals, restrooms, A/C in convention center

The 48,000-square-foot south hall of the convention center will be open during excessive heat warnings, according to Assistant City Manager Deanna Jonovich. 

The city will bus individuals from the campus-area to the convention center, where they can stay between 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Individuals can use the indoor restrooms, and St. Vincent de Paul will deliver meals.

Jonovich said the city will provide people with masks to wear during the bus ride to the convention center, but they will not have to wear them inside since there should be enough space for social distancing in the hall. 

"One of the things we want to ensure... is that they are not in the sun all day, which doesn't provide for your body temperature to go down," Jonovich said. 

She said the city is not yet sure of the cost of operating the heat relief program in the convention center. 

Gallego said it will be beyond the $27 million in coronavirus relief money the Phoenix City Council allocated in April to support people experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity. 

Tent, cooling system for older adults

Phoenix also will pay for three large, climate-controlled tents for people experiencing homelessness to use during the summer days.

The tents will be located outside the St. Vincent de Paul dining rooms on the Human Services Campus and in Sunnyslope and outside the Justa Center, a day center near the Human Services Campus for senior citizens experiencing homelessness. 

Justa Center Executive Director Wendy Johnson said she asked the city to supply a large tent and cooling system about a month ago. Because of COVID-19 social distancing rules, she was unable to allow many older adults into her organization's modest building at once. 

On Tuesday, Johnson asked the city once more if officials could pay for the shade and cooling. A city official wrote back that the city would not fund it. 

"I sent an email to everyone and said, 'I'm sorry to hear this, because there aren't any heat relief stations," she said. 

By Thursday, the city had changed its tune. It committed funding for Justa Center to rent a tent and cooler for four months. Johnson said the equipment should arrive Friday and be operational by Saturday. Anyone experiencing homelessness who is older than 55 will be able to rest under the tent and receive meals until 7 p.m.

Johnson said she ran into a few of the people who frequent the Justa Center Thursday afternoon and told them about the tent. 

"One of guys got all teary and said, 'I can't believe you're going to help us in the late afternoons and evening,'" Johnson said. "The whole week of emails and phone calls ... and back and forth became worth it in that moment."

Overnight respite still missing

Amy Schwabenlender said she believes Phoenix's plan to open up the convention center will help.

"It truly is respite. It's day relief. It's allowing people to be inside and not dying outside in the heat," she said. 

But she's still concerned about overnight shelter, which is currently not available to the hundreds of people sleeping on the streets outside the campus. 

"It's definitely a good step during day (but) people die in the middle of the night during the heat," Schwabenlender said. 

In previous years, the Human Services Campus has opened up some of its buildings during excessive heat warnings to allow indoor sleeping space for 275 people who typically sleep on the streets.

That can't happen in the same way this year because of COVID-19, Schwabenlender saida. 

One of the spaces where people slept last year now is used as a shelter for people who are high risk for COVID-19. They cannot fit any additional people in that building without violating CDC guidance related to social distancing.

The other building, the St. Vincent de Paul dining room, will start offering weather relief on Monday. But it will be limited to 40 people to ensure social distancing, Schwabenlender said.

Combined with the regular shelter space on the Human Services Campus, there will be room for 477 people on the campus during excessive heat warnings this year. Last year, 745 were served per night.

"It's inhumane," Schwabenlender said of forcing people to sleep outside during excessive heat. "We could ignore CDC guidelines and cram more people into spaces, but then we're not helping to mitigate the risk of coronavirus. I feel very stuck right now." 

She's called on the city, county and other government entities to allow the campus to shelter people overnight in some of the government buildings that are closed because of COVID-19. Before Phoenix offered the convention center as day respite, she suggested the center would be a decent place for overnight respite. 

"I know that sounds sort of wacky, but over 200 people will sleep outside tonight. So we can continue to be OK with that or we can look at every wacky idea," Schwabenlender said. 

Jonovich said Phoenix does not have any plans to offer overnight respite. 

Climate-controlled tents and hotels

Scchwabenlender said she has been in talks with the county to purchase a "sprung structure" — basically a massive outdoor tent with air conditioning. 

She's hoping the structure can go up in the Human Services Campus' parking lot and provide overnight shelter for about 150 people and possibly day respite, too. Phoenix will have to approve a permit to allow the structure.

Maricopa County Human Services Director Bruce Liggett said in a statement that "the county has made it clear we will work with other funders to pay for this structure if the city of Phoenix allows it. We believe this needs to be a campus solution with city approval."

He said he has near-daily conversations with the campus about how to get more people sheltered indoors. 

Maricopa County has rented 25 hotels rooms in the East Valley for people experiencing homelessness and has reserved 28 rooms in downtown Phoenix for anyone who is homeless and contracts COVID-19. The county also is working to secure 20 more hotel rooms in the coming weeks. 

In addition, the county leased a shelter-style building in south Scottsdale with room for 48 vulnerable people.

Over the past three years, the county has contributed more than $172,000 for programs that allowed people to escape the heat on the campus during the summer months, Liggett said. 

First heat wave began without weather relief

Summers have been getting hotter with human-caused climate change.

National Weather Service data for Phoenix shows that from June through August, the average temperature during the 2010s was 3.1 degrees hotter than during the 1970s.

There also have been long-term increases in summer average daily highs and average nighttime lows.

The local urban-heat-island effect in Phoenix has contributed to higher temperatures. The vast areas of the city that are paved over with concrete and asphalt soak up the heat from the sun and then radiate it at night, pushing the city’s temperatures higher than surrounding rural areas.

As temperatures have risen, the number of deaths linked to heat has also been on the rise.

Maricopa County reported 197 heat-associated deaths in 2019, up from 182 the previous year. Sixty-seven homeless people were among the victims last year, the highest number to date. 

Phoenix's first 110-degree-plus heat wave, which started Wednesday, began without any substantial weather relief for people without shelter. 

Dr. Christopher Pexton, medical director of Circle the City's downtown family health center, said his team is preparing to be quicker and more aggressive with health care for the homeless population this summer. 

He said they need more safe indoor space to prevent heat-related illness and to prevent the heat aggravating conditions like diabetes and kidney disease. 

"As it gets hotter, we're trying to get people indoors more," Pexton said. 

Asked whether coronavirus or heat exposure was more dangerous to the homeless population, he paused momentarily. 

"It's a really challenging question," Pexton said. "They both have the potential to be deadly, and they both have been deadly. The hard part is part of this population is high-risk to both causes. They're at severe risk for coronavirus, and they absolutely cannot tolerate severe heat."

Whose problem to solve? 

Homeless service providers receive funding from an array of different government entities, including the state, county and cities.

Gallego said that often, however, the majority of the burden falls on Phoenix because the Human Services Campus, home to the largest homeless shelter in the state, is located in Phoenix. 

People from across Maricopa County come to the campus in Phoenix to receive services. 

"We will do more, we need to do more and I hope that we will have partners along the way," she said. 

Gallego said the City Council has allocated $27 million of its nearly $300 million in federal coronavirus relief funds to homelessness, housing and nonprofit support.

The majority of the homelessness funds are dedicated to long-term housing solutions, but it also includes more than $1 million to rent about 100 hotel rooms to serve as an emergency shelter for older adults who are homeless. 

Jonovich said the senior hotel was suppose to be up and running weeks ago, but the city couldn't come to contract terms with the hotel. The city hopes to ink a deal with a different hotel in the coming weeks, she said. 

Gallego said, "Every level of government needs to do more on homelessness. We need to do more at the city of Phoenix. Chairman Hickman and the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors need to do more, and Governor Doug Ducey needs to do more as well." Gallego said. 

In a statement, Hickman said the county appreciates that Phoenix has "pledged federal money to work on homeless issues in their city," and said the county "has already spent more than $2 million assisting people experiencing homelessness in the past three months."

"We saw the potential risks and started spending before the federal government stepped in to help," he said. 

Hickman said the county's public health department is advising Circle the City on infection control and providing equipment and testing. He also said the county is not spending all of its relief funds at once as it anticipates the need to spend more money through its public health and human services department to address the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Governor's Office spokesman Patrick Ptak said in a statement that the state is focused on a holistic approach to combat homeless.

He said the state has distributed more than $1.4 billion in unemployment assistance since April and allocated $440 million to local governments, $5 million to homeless shelters, $5 million for eviction assistance, $1.75 million to food banks and "millions more for other efforts to protect our most vulnerable." 

"The city of Phoenix has received nearly $300 million from the federal government. It’s going to take leaders at all levels," he said. 

Maricopa County Supervisor Steve Gallardo, who represents the district that contains the Human Services Campus, said there's always been, and continues to be, a lot of "finger pointing" as to who is responsible for the homeless population.

"At the end of the day, it's everybody's responsibility," Gallardo said. 

He said beyond the state, county and Phoenix, which are frequently called on to care for the homeless population, other outlying cities need to commit resources as well. He said he hopes cities use some of the coronavirus relief money they received from the state this week to support homelessness services. 

Gallardo said he'll also push for the county to spend more of its nearly $400 million in relief funds on shelter, housing and permanent solutions to end homelessness. 

Shwabenlender said it's disheartening to see the finger-pointing, because at the end of the day, the elected officials aren't the ones "looking people in the eye who are asking for help and saying, 'No. I can't help you.'" 

"This becomes an invisible population. It's almost like they're no longer human beings," she said. 

Arizona Republic reporter Ian James contributed to this story. 

Reach the reporter at jessica.boehm@gannett.com or 480-694-1823. Follow her on Twitter @jboehm_NEWS. 

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