Pueblo's homeless struggling to stay cool amid dangerously hot July weather

Temperatures had been above the century mark for hours on a recent July day when Puebloan Gina Romero took off on another walk on East First Street to the Loaf ‘N Jug on Sante Fe Avenue.

Romero had already made that walk to the convenience store and back to the Fountain Creek area several times earlier that day, but needed to return to the store once more to grab ice and water to try to beat the sweltering heat.

“It’s miserable,” Romero said. “It’s really bad. You can’t breathe because you feel suffocated.”

Romero, a 50-year-old Pueblo woman who is homeless, is one of the more fortunate people in her community, as she has a shelter that she built herself that allows for better air circulation and provides some cover from the unrelenting sun.

But that shelter is still not enough to completely shield her from the torrid heat, which in Pueblo, is often unforgiving in July.

“You’re so weak and you feel like you’re just going to faint,” Romero said. “I try to stay covered and I keep wetting myself (with water), but it seems like you just get hotter and hotter.”

Maximum temperatures in Pueblo have eclipsed 100 degrees at least 10 times since July 11, including a high of 105 on July 18. Intense weather days are expected to continue this week, with the National Weather Service's Pueblo office forecasting at least a few more 100-degree temperatures in the days to come.

That extreme heat has left Pueblo’s homeless scrambling for shelter, water and anything else that can help them cool off. Many have their tents or some other form of shelter, but those are too hot to stay inside during the day.

At least a few of Pueblo's unhoused have visited parks where trees can provide shade, or City Center Plaza to get drenched by its fountain, but the visits are typically short because they feel they can’t “stay there too long,” Romero said.

Most of the time, people in the Fountain Creek area try to find shade under the trees and bushes that surround them. Some are aware of the Pueblo Rescue Mission, Pueblo’s most well-known homeless shelter, but know it’s often at capacity or don’t want to travel there for other, unspecified reasons.

“I got a tarp up and I sit under that sucker when I can,” said Thomas Gonzales, a 48-year-old Pueblo native who’s been homeless for at least 10 years. “I mean, I have to, really, and wait for times (when there’s clouds) so I can get some water before it clears up again.”

One of the lifelines of support for Pueblo's unhoused is Paul Montoya, a former pastor of a now-defunct church and advocate for people who are homeless. Montoya drives his pickup truck to the Fountain Creek area near First Street twice, and sometimes three times per day.

The truck is usually loaded with water bottles, food or other supplies such as baby wipes so unhoused people can at least wipe off some of their sweat. Montoya distributes the items alongside his friend Anthony Leroy Cannon, who himself escaped homelessness after living it for nearly a decade.

Earlier this month, Montoya said it was “like heaven” for some unhoused people after he brought coolers containing cold water to disburse. On Sunday, when the temperature topped 102 degrees, Montoya and Cannon spent three and a half hours passing out 280 snow cones near the river bottom and Bessemer neighborhood.

It was another way to mitigate some of the sweat-inducing heat.

“The heat is miserable for all of them,” Montoya said. “The tension is high, anxiety and frustration are high. In the wintertime, at least you can bundle up and stay warm. But this heat — I think (their experience) is worse in the summer. I really do.”

Circumstances have been similar for unhoused people across the country. Heat waves have swept across the U.S. and some cities have seen hotter temperatures than ever before.

In Pueblo, the average high temperature so far in July has been 94 degrees, which is a few ticks below what the weather service tracked last year. But it’s felt much hotter, Montoya said, especially near Fountain Creek where there’s little shade, it feels humid and mosquitos and other bugs pose problems.

“It’s really horrible down there,” Romero said. “You just feel so weak and like you’re going to faint.”

The Pueblo Rescue Mission offers shaded space and a water dispensing station near its entrance for people who want cover from the sun and hydrate, but there's few other resources for unhoused people in Pueblo when the weather gets hot.

Neither the city or county currently offer a designated cooling center or any other type of facility for people to escape the heat. Haley Sue Robinson, director of public affairs for the city, said providing a cooling shelter during summer months isn't something the city has organized before.

However, she noted that people among the unhoused population could enter the Pueblo Transit Center during operating hours or hop on Pueblo Transit's buses and Citi-Lift rides, which are free to ride through August.

For more information or to make a donation to Montoya, contact him on Facebook or by phone at 719-778-8665. To offer assistance to Crazy Faith Street Ministry, a nonprofit that helps the homeless, visit crazyfaithstreetministry.com.

Pueblo Rescue Mission accepts donations at its building at 728 W. Fourth St.

Chieftain reporter Josue Perez can be reached at JHPerez@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @josuepwrites. Support local news, subscribe to The Pueblo Chieftain at subscribe.chieftain.com.

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This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo's unhoused struggling to stay cool amid 'miserable' summer heat