Southern California's record-breaking heat wave exposes health risks for unhoused population

Extreme heat — like the record-breaking heat wave that’s been scorching Southern California for weeks — is a growing health hazard across the nation, according to the National Weather Service. It’s the No. 1 cause of weather-related deaths in the U.S., more than hurricanes, flooding and tornadoes combined.

But for L.A. County’s unhoused population, who live under conditions where water, shade and showers are already scarce, the health risks associated with the heat are even worse .

“Everything is exacerbated in the heat,” said Sade Kammen of Water Drop Los Angeles, a nonprofit that provides drinking water to unhoused people on Skid Row. “People are just lying on the pavement in their underwear anywhere they can find shade. They just look exhausted. Many are passed out in their tents.”

Classic heat stroke signs — confusion, dizziness, headaches, fainting, delirium and lethargy — often go unnoticed among this group, reducing the chance of intervention, according to recent studies. Some people are at even greater risk because of pre-existing health conditions. Studies show that many medications and recreational drugs increase the risk of dehydration and heat-related death.

Record heat can lead to death

Last week’s unprecedented heat wave broke National Weather Service Records in many cities across California, including the L.A. County cities of Lancaster and Palmdale where temperatures soared above 110 degrees.

Several fatalities and illnesses across the West have been linked to the heat. A motorcyclist died in Death Valley National Park, where temperatures hit 128 degrees. A hiker was found dead in the Grand Canyon, according to the National Park Service. Officials in Santa Clara county are investigating 14 recent deaths that are possibly linked to the heat.

Last weekend, temperatures reached triple digits in downtown L.A. Kammen, who was in the area to distribute water, said she saw several ambulances attending to people who had passed out from heat stroke.

“Basically everyone we came in contact with was begging for more water,” she said.

The World Health Organization recommends a minimum of four gallons of water per day to meet the minimum daily water needs for drinking and sanitation during an emergency situation. On Skid Row, where roughly 2,695 people are unsheltered on any given night, residents have access to about half of that, according to a 2024 audit by Water Drop LA.

The organization provides about two gallons of water per resident per week during the summer, Kammen said. There are city-provided water fountains throughout the encampment, but many don’t work or are unsanitary. Some people use them to bathe in or wash their belongings, rather than drink from them, she said.

At best, there are about 15 working hydration stations throughout Skid Row on any given week, according to the audit — roughly 1 for every 180 people.

“You wouldn’t want your dog to drink that water,” said Tony Gomez, 38, who lived on Skid Row throughout 2022 and 2023 with his wife and young child.

He said he often had to bust open a fire hydrant in order to drink and bathe because the water fountains were “very horrible.” And he recalled seeing people “dropping like flies” because they didn’t have enough water for drinking, bathing and general hygiene.

“They were just laying there like a piece of trash,” he said. “Sometimes it would be awhile before an ambulance would come and pick them up.”

Gomez said he had health problems during that time — headaches, fatigue, body aches — along with the discomfort of not being able to bathe regularly. “The stench was horrible,” he said. In December, he secured housing through Mayor Karen Bass’ Inside Safe program and now lives in a one-room apartment at a downtown hotel.

If he were older, he said, he might not have survived those summer months on Skid Row.

Hygiene and disease

Preventing the spread of disease requires good hygiene, particularly hand washing. With illnesses like Hepatitis A and COVID-19 on the rise within unhoused communities, according to the Department of Public Health, officials and community volunteers say the summer heat makes the problem worse.

“If you’re struggling to meet your water needs daily, you’re not handwashing things, and the hygiene standard becomes a lot harder to maintain,” Kammen said.

Sherin Varghese, who volunteers with Ktown for All, an outreach and advocacy group serving unhoused residents in Koreatown, noted that some people have to care for their wounds, which is nearly impossible to do properly without running water.

“It’s a lot harder to stay clean in the heat and infections spread faster,” she said. “In the past few weeks I’ve had a lot more people asking for products like Neosporin and hydrogen peroxide, the kinds of things people need without access to running water.”

People on the streets need more shade

A lack of places for unsheltered people to go to cool off is also an issue.

Cooling stations are one part of the city and county’s efforts to provide relief from the heat for unhoused people during the summer months.

Last year, the city received nearly $2.5 million for cooling and warming stations in Skid Row. But last summer, the city was delayed more than a month in opening the stations, L.A. officials said.

To explain the delay, they cited “ miscommunication issues ” between the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority and Urban Alchemy, the nonprofit that operates the cooling stations.

As of June, only a few cooling stations were in operation on Skid Row, according to outreach workers who volunteer in the area. Representatives from Urban Alchemy said they did not know the exact number.

Kammen said unhoused people in the area have often complained that they had to walk several blocks to get just a cup of water at a cooling station — in the blazing hot sun —defeating the purpose.

There aren’t enough stations in Koreatown either, Varghese said.

“People don’t have the ability to travel to the stations, and often there is such a lack of communication that no one even knows they are open,” she said.

Experts warn that people living in vehicles are also at risk as the interior of a car during a heat wave can reach lethal temperatures within minutes , according to the National Weather Service. Volunteers counted more than 2,460 vehicles last year that appeared to have people living in them, according to Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority’s point-in-time count.

What can Angelenos do to help?

Government agencies in the city of L.A. and L.A. County have been unable to sufficiently meet immediate needs of unhoused and unsheltered people, prompting mutual aid groups to step in to try to fill the gap.

County residents can help in several ways.

One is to hand out water to unhoused people in your neighborhood, Kammen said. She recommended storing cases in your freezer and putting it in your car on a hot day. (Sharing water is legal in the city of Los Angeles, but there are public health restrictions that prohibit food sharing in certain jurisdictions throughout the state.)

“I think a lot of people don't interact with unhoused people, water is a really easy way to do that,” she says. “When someone is really struggling it can mean so much.”

Another suggestion, from Varghese, is to freeze ice pops and pass them out to unhoused people.

Most mutual aid groups are in need of resources, including donations and volunteers, especially during the summer months, she said.