What you can do for your unhoused neighbors during this heat wave (or any time)

[Demovictory9]

https://www.latimes.com/homeless-housing/story/2021-07-09/what-you-can-do-for-your-unhoused-neighbors-during-this-heat-wave-or-anytime

Everyone suffers when heat waves strike and set new high temperatures. But some communities are more vulnerable than others, and that includes the thousands of unhoused people in Southern California. Thirst, heat stroke and exhaustion pose serious threats to homeless people around the region.

Mayer Dahan, founder of the Dream Builders Project, a nonprofit that assembles and distributes care packages to homeless people, said that now more than ever Angelenos need to “activate” themselves the same way they did in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and respond to the needs of the unhoused community.

Here’s what you can do.

During extreme heat
Mayra Lozano, director of community outreach for WaterDrop LA, a skid row nonprofit, said that above all, people need water.

Link to tweet

— Water Drop LA (@WaterDropLA) June 15, 2021
Under extreme conditions, excessive sweating can cause serious health problems. Supplemental electrolytes — from a sports drink or other sources — can help prevent heat stroke, said Cat Kim, board director for the SELAH Neighborhood Homeless Coalition.

Cooling towels, hats and umbrellas, Kim said, are other things that you can think about giving to an unhoused person. Ice packs from meal-delivery services are also great to give out.

When talking with an unhoused person, encourage them to seek shade or refuge from the sun. You can direct them to public libraries, she said, or cooling centers run by the county. Cooling centers were closed last summer because of the pandemic, but they are back this year. Locations change each year.

https://www.latimes.com/homeless-housing/story/2021-07-09/what-you-can-do-for-your-unhoused-neighbors-during-this-heat-wave-or-anytime

[jimfields33]

1. I never heard the term unhoused before.

I hope they are helped by Californians the next days.

[haele]

2. It's the term de jour for homeless, in an attempt to destigmatize the situation.

Currently, people tend to equate Homeless with the bum or druggie; transients or troublemakers who prefer to live on the street than get a real job. Unhoused is the term some activists are using for people who had the bad luck to lose their housing, most times through no real fault of their own.
Personally, I find this rather hypocritical, again the moral hazard crowd attempting to separate the poor into the rather Victorian categories of lazy criminals and the virtuous poor who need our charity.
But it never surprises me how quickly the "virtuous poor" turn into "lazy criminals" as soon as they show themselves as individuals who want their own agency rather than live the lives those dispensing the charity want them to live.

Homeless is the same as Unhoused. But homeless is still the individual with the condition, rather than the condition itself.

Haele