Affordable housing residents concerned about safety 2 years after Bellingham heat wave death

As Bellingham approaches its hottest month of the year, low-income senior residents at the Eleanor Apartments are raising concerns about safety due to a lack of central air conditioning within units and excessive temperatures in their building.

Residents say the multi-story affordable housing development frequently gets too hot during the summer months and the upstairs hallways are often above 85 degrees. Due to code restrictions, residents are also unable to open some of the windows in their rooms more than a few inches, making it difficult to manage the high temperatures.

After a resident died in the building due to an apparent heat stroke during the record heat wave in summer 2021, Eleanor residents began getting portable A/C units from Bellingham’s Opportunity Council and from Mercy Housing, the owner and operator of the Eleanor Apartments.

Still, not everyone in the building has air conditioning in their unit, and residents are concerned another extreme heat event could be dangerous.

“Heat is going to be an issue,” Eleanor resident Karina Davidson said. “I feel like what we have now is a stop-gap and I worry for the future with no heat abatement that’s more serious than what they’ve got going.”

The affordable housing complex at 1510 N. Forest St. in Bellingham, Wash., is designed to house tenants who make 30% to 50% of the area’s median income.

Mercy Housing Northwest President Joe Thompson said the Eleanor’s lack of in-unit air conditioning is not unique to the Eleanor. Many apartment communities in Bellingham lack in-unit air conditioning. But he says Mercy is making an effort to help residents.

The building does have an air-conditioned community space that Thompson says can be opened 24/7 during extreme weather events.

“During times of extreme heat, air-conditioned community rooms are available to residents to act as cooling stations,” Thompson said in a statement to The Herald.

As of July 13, Mercy Housing had also provided 45 portable air conditioning units to residents for free via their reasonable accommodation request process. Several more units are available at the property in order to accommodate any future requests, according to Thompson.

With 80 total units in the building, Eleanor residents want to see more action from Mercy Housing.

“After [the 2021 heat wave], it should have just been 80 [air conditioning units] go in. They write up a notice of entry to the apartments and they put them in,” Davidson said.

Twelve other Eleanor residents have also been able to take advantage of a program that opened up last year through Bellingham’s Opportunity Council which provides individuals who are 60 and older with a portable air conditioning unit in connection with Washington State’s Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).

However, only residents who have received LIHEAP between Oct 1, 2022, and July 31, 2023, and meet the age requirement, are currently eligible to receive a unit. All appointments to receive an air conditioning unit through this program, except for limited crisis appointments, have already been filled for the season.

“I’m worried about other folks, especially who have moved in recently, who may not have air conditioning and I’m concerned that we could have another situation as we did with [the death in 2021],” Eleanor resident Stan Betts said.

New building code mandates

As of July 1, 2023, Washington State law now requires electric heat pumps to be installed in new homes, multifamily buildings and commercial spaces. Electric heat pumps move cold air inside when it’s hot and move warm air inside when it’s cold, according to the Department of Energy.

This wasn’t a requirement when the Eleanor was built in 2017. But new affordable developments built by Mercy Housing across the Pacific Northwest, including The Millworks Project at Bellingham’s waterfront, will have in-unit air. Although, Thompson says these new requirements won’t come without challenges.

“We are responding to the times,” Thompson said in a telephone interview with The Herald. “Though, they are unfunded mandates. So the cost to develop affordable housing is high and growing in these times of inflation.”

The impact of extreme heat

During the record heat wave between June 26 and July 2, 2021, the Pacific Northwest saw more than 100 heat-related deaths, according to the Washington State Department of Health.

The average number of heat-related illness emergency department visits between June 25 and June 30, 2021, was 69 times higher than during the same period of days in 2019, according to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that included Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. The most affected groups were males and people age 75 and older.

Vulnerable populations, including low-income seniors like the residents at the Eleanor, are the most impacted by these types of extreme weather events, which are only expected to become more frequent and worsen over time.

“I’m worried about people... who don’t have family and rely on caregivers who may have a limited schedule. There aren’t a lot of people looking in on those folks and they are the most vulnerable, the ones who are most at risk when we have something like this heat event that we had in 2021,” said Eleanor resident Betts.

The city of Bellingham’s Office of Climate is prioritizing actions to support vulnerable people during extreme heat and periods of poor air quality due to wildfire smoke, according to Mayor Seth Fleetwood. Services are being especially focused on medically home-bound and low-income seniors, Fleetwood said.

“We know extreme heat and other severe weather disproportionately impacts vulnerable and isolated people. This is of great concern to us as we face increasing local weather changes and other effects of climate change,” Fleetwood said in a statement to The Herald.

The city is working with various health and social services providers to offer assistance including providing box fans with air filters for people’s homes, organizing the availability of cool, smoke-free locations, such as churches and public buildings, and coordinating volunteers and organizational partners to assist with these services, according to Fleetwood.

“This is the first year of the program. We are focused on the most vulnerable members of our community, while laying the foundation for expansion of the program in the years to come,” Fleetwood said.