10:58am August 11, 2013

➸ Keep us cool! - Act to prevent heat injury and death among Burlington's most vulnerable citizens

Signal boosting again.

The Burlington Housing Authority has effectively banned summer air conditioning at its largest property, Decker Towers, a 150 unit high rise for seniors and the disabled, most of whom are at severe risk for heat injury.

As of the summer of 2013, only wheeled portable air conditioners will be allowed. The price of portable air conditioners is well out of reach for most of the residents. The scale of the need is too great for any social services agency to bridge the gap. Even if somehow every tenant obtained a portable air conditioner, tests showed that these air conditioners did not cool apartments adequately and could not be maintained by residents.

What’s so bad about this?

The climate is changing. Heat waves are a permanent feature of the new Vermont. Many of the residents of 230 St. Paul St. are among Burlington’s most vulnerable to heat injury and death. They are Burlington’s sickest, oldest, and poorest residents living outside a hospital or nursing home.

The west-facing apartments at Decker Towers have an especially serious heat problem. Temperatures in west-facing apartments can reach nearly 100 degrees even on a comparatively mild summer day.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did a thorough study of individual-level risk factors for heat wave victims. They came up with a list of conditions of vulnerability: living alone, not leaving home daily, lacking access to transportation, being sick or bedridden, not having social contacts nearby, and not having an air conditioner. The first five points describe many Decker Towers residents. If window air conditioners are banned, all six risk factors for heat death will be in place, and tenants will die in Burlington next summer.

Why the new policy?

The BHA has said that water dripping from the air conditioners at Decker Towers damages the new building surface. Since summer rainstorms and melting snows drop more water on the building than years of air conditioning, we find this explanation improbable. Whatever the real reason is, given the lethal consequences of this decision, it cannot be an acceptable reason.

What do we want from you?

Five minutes of your time.