As This summer As already made clear, Extreme heat It has already started and is expected to get worse in the coming years.
Rising temperatures are causing more and more people to suffer from serious health problems, including heatstroke, cardiovascular disease, and respiratory illnesses. This is true for groups that are already vulnerable These include older people, pregnant women and people with pre-existing conditions such as heart disease or diabetes.
In Texas, which often has the hottest temperatures in the country, the heatwaves have More than 330 people in 2023setting a new record. Houston is experiencing a heatwave Avoiding the impact of power outages By Hurricane Beryl.
Despite the rising toll, there are surprisingly few regulations to protect people from the effects of heat, in stark contrast to the way policies address extreme cold, which remains a major threat. More deadly than extreme heatAs heat waves become more dangerous, the gap between the two is likely to narrow.
For example, few states have laws requiring landlords to provide air conditioning for their tenants. Most states Policies exist that require heating to be provided during the winter, but during extreme heat, it can be difficult to determine what is and isn’t required. There is still no comprehensive state-by-state cooling policy resource, which speaks to the paucity of regulations that take heat exposure into account.
This is mainly because policymakers are lagging behind on climate change. Landlord Group Meeting these requirements would be expensive, both in energy bills and in the equipment to actually address the problem, and there are questions about who would foot the bill, as well as concerns that air-conditioning mandates could be passed on to tenants in the form of higher rents.
But the need for adequate cooling is only becoming more urgent, and the prevalence of heat waves is increasing. It’s getting stronger, longer and more frequent. This highlights the fact that air conditioning is no longer a luxury but a necessity and not having one in your home can be deadly.
Cooling policy has big gaps
Rental property cooling policies vary from state to state and often city to city. There are no federal laws or regulations governing them, and many states don’t even have any. Dallas Some states have passed ordinances requiring homeowners to provide air conditioning, such as Texas. Offers the same protection Across the state.
“At the federal level, there is no fundamental right to air conditioning or anything like that,” David Koniski, co-director of the Energy Justice Institute at Indiana University, told Vox.
As a result, these measures, called habitability laws, depend heavily on where people live. These laws dictate what requirements landlords must meet for the housing they provide. There is almost no cooling functionMeanwhile, when it comes to heating, these policies tend to state that rental properties must have heating equipment that maintains a certain temperature or higher.
“Unlike heating, cooling is not built into occupancy codes and is not mandated as summers get hotter and hotter,” said Lucy Gourevitch, housing policy manager at the Climate and Communities Project.
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Some state policies, e.g. California and new yorkThe law requires landlords to maintain any air conditioning already installed in the unit, but does not require them to install it in the first place. Despite the extreme heat experienced in most states in recent years, many states have yet to enact state laws requiring the installation of cooling systems.
A similar trend is seen with federal energy assistance programs, which often allocate the majority of their funds to help tenants with winter heating costs. About 80% of the funds allocated to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) go to the winter, with much less for the summer, says Mark Wolf, executive director of the National Association of Energy Assistance Directors. That’s largely a byproduct of the program being underfunded, with most of the money running out after it’s spent in the winter, Wolf said.
The breakdown could mean that tenants who need such assistance will struggle to cover their summer expenses, even if they have access to air conditioning.
As Rebecca Reber previously reported for Vox.The same trend holds true when utilities cut off power to customers if they fail to pay. Many states offer protections for customers in this situation during the cold winter months, but not during the increasingly bitterly hot summer months. According to a previous Vox article, reportWhile 41 states offer protection from utility shutoffs to customers who don’t pay their bills during extreme cold, only 18 states offer similar protection during extreme heat.
Preventing these outages is one of the key ways to ensure people have access to air conditioning when temperatures soar, Reber wrote.
“There are a lot of policy areas where we’ve historically made a distinction between cold and hot,” Koniski says.[We’ve thought that] “Protecting people from extreme cold has never been more important,” but now, “heat is just as deadly and just as much of a concern.”
These omissions could have serious consequences
The impact of these gaps will become even more pronounced as extreme heat events become more common and therefore more dangerous to people’s health.
Experts say low-income tenants, in particular, are disproportionately affected by such deficiencies because they can’t afford their own cooling systems, and Black Americans are also more likely to live in places exposed to extreme heat. A 2020 studyAccording to a study by climate and health scientists Adrienne Hollis and Christy Dahl, “counties with larger African-American populations experience two to three more days of extreme temperatures per year than counties with smaller African-American populations.”
Being indoors without air conditioning or other cooling devices during these extreme heat waves poses particular risks to the elderly, infants, pregnant women and people with serious health conditions such as heart disease or high blood pressure. Serious complications that can result include blood clots, kidney failure and asthma.
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“Unfortunately, access to cooling is becoming yet another manifestation of economic disparity within the country and around the world,” Wolf said. About 13 percent 100% of U.S. households lack air conditioning, and renters are more likely to lack it than homeowners.
The consequences of that absence have become increasingly evident in recent years, with cities like Phoenix Deaths from heatstroke hit record highIn 2023, Phoenix experienced 30 consecutive days of heat waves above 110 degrees Fahrenheit, killing 645 people, nearly double the number killed the previous year. The majority of these deaths were low-income and unhoused people. According to Phoenix authorities.
Being indoors without air conditioning during such extreme heat is especially dangerous.
“Indoors can actually get hotter than outdoors, and this is a really important environmental justice issue,” says Leah Sinaci, an assistant professor of environmental and occupational health at Drexel University. To be concluded in 2024 Helyon study.
Policies subject to change
Experts say more funding is needed to cover the costs associated with cooling systems, along with regulations that treat them as essential commodities.
Some cities where temperatures have been consistently rising, such as Dallas, have passed ordinances in recent years requiring homeowners to install air conditioners that keep rooms below a certain temperature. Other cities like Los Angelesare considering a similar proposal.
Such policies are in addition to several laws at the state level.
“These are the kinds of policies that are being implemented in different states,” said Seth Gertz Billingsley, a Harvard Law student who has studied heat-warning policies in different states. Oregon law states It is one of the most far-reaching laws in the world. Passed in 2022 — Allow renters to install air conditioners and also set up an emergency fund to help low-income renters purchase air conditioners, though it does not require all landlords to provide them.
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In addition to strengthening requirements for air conditioning and other cooling systems, advocates say it’s important that such policies consider making sure the costs of the changes aren’t simply passed on to tenants.
Wolf says federal and state governments could offer subsidies to landlords, for example. And more money is needed for energy assistance programs that focus directly on tenants. Wolf estimates that LIHEAP needs an additional $3 billion a year to cover the costs people face over the summer. Any proposals would also need to include protections for tenants from rent increases and potential evictions, Gorevic said.
Another important consideration is the need to install cooling options such as heat pumps that are more efficient than traditional air conditioners. The paradox of air conditioners is that while they are essential to protect people’s health during heatwaves, they also release significant amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Devices such as heat pumps move heat from indoors to outdoors and vice versa, making them a more climate-friendly alternative, especially in winter. More efficient than conventional furnaces.
But to change these policies, lawmakers need to understand how rapidly climate change is happening and how it is affecting people’s lives. This summer’s forecast And it shows that the world will only get hotter from then on.
“Many of the laws and enforcement policies regarding livability are decades old and need to be updated to adapt to the new realities in which we live,” Gorevic said.
