For Sacramento’s homeless population, summertime is about surviving the heat | Opinion
To some residents of Sacramento, Cesar Chavez Plaza is an eyesore, with anywhere from 20 to 30 or more unhoused individuals set up in tents, sprawled out in the sun or gathered in small groups around the fountain. But for the folks who spend their days or nights here, this park is their home.
It’s a home with no air conditioning, water or fans. And in the summertime, when Sacramento sees triple-digit temperatures, no one feels the impact of the heat more than the city’s unhoused residents.
In the summer of 2021, the weather was relentless. I called up two friends and told them my plan. They brought the coolers, I bought the water and together we drove to Cesar Chavez Plaza.
We hadn’t been out of the car two minutes before Oliver, who calls Cesar Chavez Plaza his home, appeared next to us. After drinking an entire water bottle in one single gulp, Oliver asked if he could help us distribute waters around the park.
Afterwards, we got to chatting, and I came to find out how Oliver had ended up here.
Opinion
Decades ago, Oliver suffered a brain injury in a work accident. He asked my friends and I how old we were, and when we told him we were in our early 20s. He said that, at our age, he thought he was going to rule the world. He had his whole life ahead of him, a good job, good money and plenty of people around. After his injury, though, things stopped going his way. He could no longer work, he lost a few good friends and then, when the last people in his life who cared enough to take care of him died, he no longer had a home.
“You’re so much closer to this than you’d ever believe,” Oliver warned me. “Just a couple bad days and you’re standing right where I am.”
When I asked Oliver about the change in heat over the last few decades, he told me there was nothing like the heat of recent years. While heat waves are nothing new in Sacramento, in the last few years, they’ve gotten much worse. In fact, according to California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment, average global temperatures are expected to increase by at least 2.7 degrees by the year 2039. Heat waves are also expected to have higher daytime and nighttime temperatures, last much longer and spread much farther.
While 2039 may seem like a long way away, no one knows better than the residents of Cesar Chavez Plaza that you don’t have to wait a couple decades to feel that summers have gotten hotter. One woman I talked to in the park said “there is no escape” from the heat.
“We have nothing that helps and things have gotten much worse,” she told me. “It’s always too hot.”
Vulnerable populations, like migrant workers, individuals under the poverty line, the elderly and the unhoused, are most at risk for sickness or death in extreme weather conditions. As temperatures continue to rise, so does the death count. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an average of 702 heat-related deaths occur every year.
As extreme heat becomes a more frequent norm in Sacramento, it seems that resources and aid for those most in need are scarce. Cooling centers in Sacramento are available, but the unhoused residents of Cesar Chavez Plaza mentioned how difficult these shelters are to actually get to because of how far away they’re usually located. Some folks said that, when they do go to these shelters, they are not allowed to bring personal items, so many refuse to go.
Each time I was able to make a trip to Cesar Chavez Plaza that summer to distribute water, I wondered where the help was. If I wasn’t there to offer water, who was? Where was the city? Why is there not been a better policy to help our unhoused neighbors in Sacramento survive the heat?
For the city’s unhoused residents, it’s not about being uncomfortable in the heat, it’s about surviving it.
As my friends and I climbed into my car to leave Cesar Chavez Plaza for the last time that summer, I took a moment to look back at the park one last time. I watched as Oliver looked around aimlessly, appearing not to know what to do next or where to go.
As we drove away from the park, all I could think was: What do we do now?
Katherine Hunter is a Sacramento native residing in New York City and pursuing a career in creative nonfiction.
