The Heat Crisis Is a Housing Crisis

Air-conditioning was long considered a luxury in much of the world. Not anymore.

Look, for example, at a move earlier this month by the Biden administration: For the first time, residents of public housing can ask the federal government to pay their air-conditioning bills during periods of extreme heat. The program, which is run by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, is optional, and it authorizes local public housing authorities to use federal funds to pay for residents’ cooling costs. It could affect the more than 1.6 million low-income residents of public housing who may now find respite in their homes from the dangerously high temperatures killing people around the world.

While the measure was seen by experts as a step in the right direction, the need is far greater. Tens of millions of Americans can’t pay their energy bills, and there is often no legal requirement for landlords or building owners to provide air-conditioning. That’s not to mention the millions of Americans who are struggling to pay rent, or who are homeless, or who die in their homes with broken air-conditioners.

As thousands fall ill or die from the heat each year, public health experts increasingly point to a sprawling set of challenges with one uniting factor: Housing is at the root of what makes people vulnerable to high temperatures.

It’s not news that the United States is mired in a housing crisis. For many, housing is less affordable than it has been in decades, and finding a way to build more and better homes has been a challenge, even in some of the wealthiest places in the country. The housing crisis and poverty have compounded, making many people powerless against the heat.

There are solutions, but enacting them won’t be cheap, said Mark Wolfe, who leads the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, a nonprofit that represents states in the federally run Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which provides funds to reduce the costs of energy bills.

“The rules we have in place to protect families from high temperatures were written many years ago,” he told me. “We need a new approach, a new way of thinking to help low-income families adapt to higher temperatures.”