In her testimony before the New York City Council’s Committee on General Welfare, Deborah Berkman, Director of NYLAG’s Shelter and Economic Stability Project, advocated for air conditioning across our city’s shelters for New Yorkers experiencing homelessness and much-needed transparency, security and privacy reforms to HRA and SNAP/EBT systems:
It is no surprise to this Council that New York City experiences extreme heat during the summer months, and those temperatures are rising due to climate change. Each summer, more than 500 New Yorkers die as a result of extreme heat. Heat-related deaths account for approximately 3% of all deaths from May through September. Unsurprisingly, these deaths do not fall evenly across racial lines: Black New Yorkers are more than twice as likely to die from heat stress than white New Yorkers.
Currently, many New York City shelters lack air conditioning. NYLAG clients consistently report stifling conditions that make it unbearable to sleep at night. These conditions are often worsened by sealed windows and a lack of fans or other cooling devices. In some cases, clients are forced into street homelessness during the summer because shelter conditions are so oppressive.
