Feeling the Summer Heat in Low-Income Neighborhoods

With last week’s heat wave out west, and the return of sizzling temperatures here in Tulsa, it seems an appropriate time to look at AARP’s recent report on Summer Cooling Costs and Older Households and the importance of staying cool. As the report makes clear, turning on the air-conditioner for some families means balancing financial constraints and health concerns. AARP’s analysis is no doubt aimed to better understand the needs of households 65 or older, but the needs of older consumers living on a set income are often analogous to the needs of low-income families.

Logo courtesy of the Center for Disease Control

AARP reports that, over the past decade, average residential electricity costs have increased 40%, from 8.7 to 12.0 cents per kilowatt-hour. To help Americans afford the cost of heating and cooling their homes, the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) provides federal block grants to the states and other jurisdictions. States, however, set their own eligibility requirements and can supplement the grants with their own funds.

Most states seem to use LIHEAP funds to subsidize heating costs.  The AARP report cites LIHEAP Clearinghouse data showing only 29 states, and the District of Columbia, have cooling assistance programs. Furthermore, the average grant for these cooling programs are typically less than half the amount distributed for heating assistance.

According to LIHEAP Clearinghouse, over 5.7 million households are expected to receive heating assistance in this fiscal year, compared to only 594,000 households who will receive cooling assistance. While the number of households granted cooling assistance is significantly lower than the number receiving heating assistance, the cooling assistance estimate represents the highest number of cooling recipients in the history of the program. LIHEAP also noted that Oklahoma was among the states that had both increased regular benefits and extended program eligibility dates for cooling assistance.

All the same, according to an AARP Public Policy Institute Fact Sheet, even when these energy programs are fully funded they still do not meet the needs of all individuals. And a lack of resources to afford cooling a home can result in “sickness, death or the removal of vulnerable members of the households.”

Historically, Southern and Western states have suffered from higher energy costs during the summer. Not surprisingly, northern states tend to use LIHEAP funds for heating programs, rather than cooling programs. Yet, in recent years many areas of the country unaccustomed to higher temperatures have seen heat waves. This puts a strain on state budgets for areas where summer can be fatally hot, and winters can be deadly cold.  Illinois, anticipating federal cuts in LIHEAP funds in the coming year, cut funding for their cooling program to save money for their winter heating programs.

Being able to cool your home is vitally important, as demonstrated in the CDC’s June 7, 2013 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). The report examined 32 deaths which occurred in four midwest or eastern states during an extreme heat wave in 2012, and found 69% of decedents died at home and of these, 91% lacked air conditioning. 5 of the victims had functioning air conditioners in their homes, but they were not turned on, perhaps due to storm related power outages.

To underscore the danger heat can pose, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) recently posted a warning about soaring summer temperatures. According to the CDC press release, on average there are 658 heat-related deaths in the U.S, and in recent years this rate has been on the rise. Obviously, these numbers have experts concerned about the affordability of cooling homes.

Yet, access to air-conditioned spaces is only one issue facing low-income families. A recent story in the Huffington Post examined how heat waves impacted poor communities and found that pollution, the type of housing being utilized and lack of grass and trees can influence how hot a neighborhood gets during the summer. The author interviews a CED expert who says poor urban neighborhoods can often be 10 degrees hotter than higher-income neighborhoods nearby.

When we look at low-income neighborhoods and how they deal with the Oklahoma heat, it is important to keep all of this in mind.  Providing assistance to cool homes is an important part of the solution for low-income families, but investing in parks, planting trees along the sidewalks and growing grass in the center median of streets, can also make a big difference.

Other things to consider include how to prevent heat exhaustion and where to go to cool down if you can’t escape the heat at home.

• A list of EMSA recommendations as well as a list of Cooling Stations around Tulsa is provided on the 2News Website.
• For more information on applying for cooling assistance in Oklahoma visit the News On Six website by clicking here.
• For more CDC resources on how to deal with extreme heat check out their website by clicking here.