Soaring temperatures in San Luis Obispo County sent local officials and nonprofits scrambling to help the homeless population get out of the heat.
For more than a week running, the county and much of California has been wrapped in a heatwave, with some areas reporting record highs of more than 100 degrees. The National Weather Service [NWS] extended its Excessive Heat Warning to Sep. 9.
In an Aug. 30 email to New Times, some county supervisors, and homelessness management leaders, Hope’s Village Founder Becky Jorgeson questioned the official plans to aid the unhoused during the heat.
“People are desperate on the streets,” her email read. “Hope’s Village’s concern is for those at Oakie Village [Oklahoma Avenue Safe Parking Site]—it’ll be hotter than the dickens out there and very little shade was ever put up. And no refrigeration to keep food or water cold.”
When NWS warned SLO County about the coming heatwave on Aug. 31, some cities opened cooling centers in North County—where temperatures were expected to top 110 degrees. In Paso Robles, homeless people can find shade at the City Hall and Library Building, the Senior Center, and the Veterans Memorial Building.
In Atascadero, the community room at the public library operated as a temporary cooling center. Laurel Weir, the administrative services manager of the county homeless services unit, told New Times that the county operated library became a cooling center on Sunday and Monday, Sept. 4 and 5, when the library would have normally been closed.
“The library is open for regular hours this week and while it is not an ‘official’ cooling center, people seeking relief from the heat are welcome to come into the library to cool off,” Weir said. “I was told by library staff that the library also has a water station where people can refill their water bottles.”
According to California’s extreme temperature response plan, there are no definite temperature benchmarks that activate the need for cooling centers.
Vince Pierucci, the director of SLO County’s Emergency Medical Services, said that the county makes that decision based on forecasts produced by the NWS, such as issuing an excessive heat watch status that lasts for five or more days consecutively. Temperatures that don’t drop overnight are also a warning bell, according to Pierucci.
“In my experience, that has been a significant factor in deciding what next steps should occur. If the body doesn’t have the ability to cool off and rest then the person has an increased likelihood of experiencing heat illness as the ‘heatwave’ continues,” he said via email.
The city of SLO also offers a cooling center at the 40 Prado Homeless Services Center organized by the Community Action Partnership of SLO County (CAPSLO). Once unhoused people enter that space, staff provides them with water, to-go meal bags, and opportunities to shower, said Jack Lahey, CAPSLO’s director of homeless services.
CAPSLO also works with the county to provide case management services at the much-debated Oklahoma Avenue Parking Site (previously called Kansas Avenue). Lahey said that they offer daily rideshare services to the homeless participants of that program in case they need to go to the cooling center or to local stores.
SLO County’s parking site program manager, Jeff Al-Mashat, said the priority is ensuring that everyone has cold water to drink at the site by delivering hundreds of bottles of water.
“I make runs to the store regularly during the heatwave,” Al-Mashat said. “The CAPSLO trailer uses a fridge to keep the water cold.”
Currently, 65 people live on-site. Al-Mashat said they mainly stay in their trailers and use the generators to keep the air flowing. There are also four round-the-clock showers, with one of them being ADA-friendly. Al-Mashat added that in the coming weeks, Oklahoma Avenue would soon receive a solar-powered vehicle through the local Food Bank. It would provide healthy food to participants with the ability to refrigerate and store it safely in the heat.
Other nonprofits are also helping keep homeless residents hydrated and safe in the heat. In Atascadero and Paso Robles, staff and volunteers at the El Camino Homeless Organization (ECHO) continuously provide water bottles, iced water, and cooling towels to homeless people, Chief Operations Officer Mimi Rodriguez said. Community members donated those and can continue to drop off items at ECHO’s Atascadero shelter location.
“ECHO provides showers from Monday to Friday in Atascadero, and we have been providing that during this heatwave,” Rodriguez said. “At our Paso location, the showers are available on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.” Δ
This article appears in Student Guide 2022.
the homeless need to be institutionalized.
Dear Bulbul, I always appreciate coverage of the daily lives of SLO unhoused residents. However, while your article is about the hundreds of unhoused individuals throughout the County, your reporting would have been much stronger and accurate if you actually visited the areas where unhoused people live at and interview them as well. You should find out directly for yourself what are the conditions the unhoused individuals are exposed to.
Thank you always for covering homelessness issues in our county.