Boise’s homeless flock to cooling shelters in the heat and smoke. How you can help

On an early August afternoon, a few dozen men and women gathered inside Boise’s only daytime homeless shelter to get a break from the soaring 100-degree temperatures.

Some filled thrift-store mugs at a water fountain and picked up cups of fresh fruit at a prep kitchen counter. Others sipped on coffee and flipped through mail. An elderly man turned over a prescription bottle of medication, squinting at the label. Several in the room fixed their eyes on a television mounted to the wall, occasionally offering cheers as they watched U.S. runners compete in preliminary heats for the women’s 800-meter dash at the Paris Olympics.

Corpus Christi House off Americana Boulevard has been a lifeline for people who have no where else to go and no other means of escaping the summer heat, said Debra Thornton.

Thornton, 65, told the Idaho Statesman underneath newly installed misters on the shelter’s patio that she’s been homeless for three years since her husband died of cancer and she lost her home at an RV park. She spends most days at the shelter, relying on it for showers, meals and, of course, a place to cool down when outside temperatures become dangerously hot.

“Without the misters we’d be melting,” Thornton said. “This place is a godsend. I don’t know what I would do without it.”

At night, she sleeps at the nearby Interfaith Sanctuary on River Street.

Allen Miller, 62, does the same. He told the Statesman from a chair near the shelter’s front door that he used to live in Caldwell but has been homeless for nearly seven years. He recalled a prior summer where he suffered heat stroke from being on the streets during a few particularly hot days and ended up in the hospital. Sometimes he becomes dehydrated from not drinking enough water, he said.

“In this weather right now, it’s much better than being on the streets,” Miller said.

He also complimented the staff. Corpus Christi House extended its hours this summer because of the high temperatures, staying open from 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week, through September. Its regular hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

When the heat spikes, so do medical emergencies

Jessica Abbott, executive director of Corpus Christi House, said the shelter has a number of medically fragile guests who suffer when the heat hits.

During cooler, more temperate months in the spring and fall, the shelter sees 15-20 guests daily, Abbott told the Statesman. But in July and August, the shelter gets 40-45 guests daily at its peak, usually around 5-7 p.m. when the daytime temperatures are hottest.

Earlier this summer, Boise broke its record for the most consecutive days with a high temperature over 105 degrees, with five days, the Statesman previously reported .

“We get people who are literally outside living in encampments, their cars or by the river,” she said during an interview in her office on Aug. 2, when the daytime high reached 106 degrees. “With the heat spiking like this — it creates more medical emergencies for us. Our goal is to keep these people cool, keep them hydrated and keep an eye on how they’re doing before they have to go back out.”

She said staff at the shelter responded to two heat-related medical emergencies the prior week. When the shelter learns of an emergency, staff members run to the scene with water and other supplies, calling 911 and staying in touch with dispatch workers until an ambulance arrives.

Wildfire smoke affects homeless people too

In addition to the heat, the wildfire smoke inundating the Treasure Valley for the last several weeks is challenging for people without homes who have respiratory issues or lung diseases that already make it difficult to breathe.

“For someone who is just exposed all day to the outdoor elements — they’re going to be sensitive to this kind of air as well,” said Jodi Peterson-Stigers, the executive director of Interfaith Sanctuary. “Everyone is definitely having to find ways to manage, and those who are not able to, they’re really at risk.”

Corpus Christi wants homeless to ‘count on us’

The need for the services Corpus Christi House and other shelters in Boise provide to people who are homeless is ever-increasing, Abbott added.

“Every day we get more people,” she said.

This year, the shelter began operating for the first time on Sundays. Abbott said opening on Sundays helped ease the burden on other shelters and staved off the “utter chaos” the shelter staff saw on Mondays, when people could access the shelter and its services after a day without.

Abbott, who became the director of Corpus Christi House in December, remembered seeing people huddled up in front of the building on Sundays in freezing temperatures.

“I was like ‘No, this doesn’t work,’” she said. “Nothing in their lives is consistent. They live in survival mode. So by bringing this this element of consistency in, it made our Mondays a lot better. Our biggest goal is that they can always count on us.”

Where unhoused people can go to cool off

Peterson-Stigers said her shelter is prepared to serve anyone in need of food, water or just a place to cool down, all day long. Interfaith Sanctuary’s official hours are in the morning and overnight, from 5:30 p.m. to 7 a.m. Monday through Saturday and until 8:00 a.m. on Sunday. Its planned move to a new location at the former Salvation Army Building will allow it to operate 24 hours a day, she said.

In early August, she said her shelter had about 170 overnight guests, more than its capacity. The shelter has 140 beds, so some had to stay in overflow spaces on air mattresses, she said.

“We’re doing our intakes and meeting a lot of new people,” Peterson-Stigers said. “That is unusual.”

Boise’s other homeless shelter, the larger Boise Rescue Mission , is also an option for the unhoused, though it requires guests to remain sober and drug free, which Interfaith Sanctuary does not.

Other indoor cooling shelters in Boise this summer include Boise City Hall, Boise Public Library, Cathedral of the Rockies, Hays House, the Rescue Mission’s City Light Home for Women and Children, the Rescue Mission’s River of Life Men’s Shelter, and Treasure Valley YMCA. Those places were identified by Our Path Home, a public-private partnership aimed at addressing homelessness, as spaces that will welcome and provide a cool place for homeless people during the warm summer months, according to a summer cooling guide for 2024.

How you can help: Donate

Peterson-Stigers said Interfaith needs donations of frozen popsicles like Otter Pops, that can survive being in a storage room and getting refrozen after being thawed. These can be distributed to people to help them bring down their internal body temperature on hot days. It also helps shelter guests who have diabetes and experience sugar crashes, she said.

Sunscreen, hats, reusable water bottles and flip flops are also needed, she said.

She also asked community members to keep an open eye, and if they see someone who seems like they’re in distress, to give them a bottle of water or call for a welfare check to make sure they’re OK.

“In this exposure, people decline rapidly,” she said.

Boise shelters make ‘a big difference’

A 24-hour shelter is just what Dave H., who declined to give his last name, is hoping for. He told the Statesman on Corpus Christi House’s patio that the Boise area needs a shelter where guests can sleep if they need to during the day.

Dave H., 46, said he’s visually impaired and has been homeless off and on since 2010. He praised the services that local shelters are able to offer.

“It makes a big difference on a 105-degree day,” he said.

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