DENVER (AP) 鈥 As Denver neared triple-digit temperatures, Ben Gallegos sat shirtless on his porch swatting flies off his legs and spritzing himself with a misting fan to try to get through the heat. Gallegos, like many in the nation鈥檚 poorest neighborhoods, doesn鈥檛 have air conditioning.
The 68-year-old covers his windows with mattress foam to insulate against the heat and sleeps in the concrete basement. He knows high temperatures can cause heat stroke and death, and his lung condition makes him more susceptible. But the retired brick layer, who survives on about $1,000 a month, says air conditioning is out of reach.
鈥淭ake me about 12 years to save up for something like that,鈥 he said. 鈥淚f it鈥檚 hard to breathe, I鈥檒l get down to emergency.鈥
As climate change fans hotter and longer heat waves, breaking record temperatures across the U.S. and leaving dozens dead, the poorest Americans suffer the hottest days with the fewest defenses. Air conditioning, once a luxury, is now a matter of survival.
As Phoenix weathered its (43 Celsius) Wednesday, the nine who died indoors didn鈥檛 have functioning air conditioning, or it was turned off. Last year, all 86 heat-related deaths indoors were in uncooled environments.
鈥淭o explain it fairly simply: Heat kills,鈥 said Kristie Ebi, a University of Washington professor who researches heat and health. 鈥淥nce the heat wave starts, mortality starts in about 24 hours.鈥
It鈥檚 the poorest and people of color, from Kansas City to Detroit to New York City and beyond, who are far more likely to face grueling heat without air conditioning, according to a Boston University analysis of 115 U.S. metro areas.
鈥淭he temperature differences ... between lower-income neighborhoods, neighborhoods of color and their wealthier, whiter counterparts have pretty severe consequences,鈥 said Cate Mingoya-LaFortune of Groundwork USA, an environmental justice organization. 鈥淭here are these really big consequences like death. ... But there鈥檚 also ambient misery.鈥
Some have window units that can offer respite, but 鈥渋n the dead of heat, it don鈥檛 do nothing,鈥 said Melody Clark, who stopped Friday to get food at a Kansas City, Kansas, nonprofit as temperatures soared to 101. When the central air conditioning at her rental house broke, her landlord installed a window unit. But it doesn鈥檛 do much during the day.
So the 45-year-old wets her hair, cooks outside on a propane grill and keeps the lights off indoors. At night she flips the box unit on, hauling her bed into the room where it鈥檚 located to sleep.
As far as her two teenagers, she said: 鈥淭hey aren鈥檛 little bitty. We aren鈥檛 dying in the heat. ... They don鈥檛 complain.鈥
While billions in federal funding have been allocated to subsidize utility costs and the installation of cooling systems, experts say they often only support a fraction of the most vulnerable families and some still require prohibitive upfront costs. Installing a centralized heat pump system for heating and cooling can easily reach $25,000.
y to defend against extreme heat, highlighting the expansion of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which funnels money through states to help poorer households pay utility bills.
While the program is critical, said Michelle Graff, who studies the subsidy at Cleveland State University, only about 16% of the nation鈥檚 eligible population is actually reached. Nearly half of states don鈥檛 offer the federal dollars for summer cooling.
鈥淪o people are engaging in coping mechanisms, like they鈥檙e turning on their air conditioners later and leaving their homes hotter,鈥 Graff said.
As temperatures rise, so does the cost of cooling. And temperatures are already hotter in America鈥檚 low-income neighborhoods. Researchers at the University of San Diego analyzed 1,056 counties and in over 70%, the poorest areas and those with higher Black, Hispanic and Asian populations were significantly hotter. That's in part because those neighborhoods lack tree coverage.
At noon on Friday, Katrice Sullivan sat on the porch of her rented house on Detroit鈥檚 westside. It was hot and muggy, but even steamier inside the house. Even if she had air conditioning, Sullivan said she鈥檇 choose her moments to run it to keep her electricity bill down.
The 37-year-old factory worker sometimes sits in her car with the air conditioner running. 鈥淪ome people here spend every dollar for food, so air conditioning is something they can鈥檛 afford,鈥 she said.
In the federal Inflation Reduction Act, billions were set aside for tax credits and rebates to help families install energy-efficient cooling systems, but some of those are yet to be available. Rebates are the kind of state and federal point-of-sale discounts that Amanda Morian has looked into for her 640-square-foot home.
Morian, who has a 13-week-old baby susceptible to hot weather, is desperate to keep her house in Denver's Globeville suburb cool. She got estimates from four different companies for installing a cooling system, but every project was between $20,000 and $25,000, she said. Even with subsidies she can鈥檛 afford it.
Instead, she bought thermal curtains, ceiling fans and runs a window unit. At night she tries to do skin-to-skin touch to regulate the baby鈥檚 body temperature.
鈥淎ll of those are just to take the edge off, its not enough to actually make it cool. It鈥檚 enough to keep us from dying,鈥 she said.
____
Associated Press writers Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Kansas, and Corey Williams in Detroit contributed to this report.
鈥斺赌
Bedayn is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
