Dangerous heat is forcing people experiencing homelessness to travel miles for relief at the Oklahoma City Homeless Alliance. The alliance is extending its hours, staying open an extra 90 minutes each day when the heat index hits 103 or higher, making sure there is a place to keep cool all day long.
Relief Efforts
For Thurman Hines, getting out of the Oklahoma heat starts with a bus ride across town. "I travel three miles to four miles, almost five miles to get here, catching the buses just to get here because there’s no place like this in Oklahoma City," Hines, a client of the Homeless Alliance, said.
The Homeless Alliance is also distributing thousands of water bottles and sending outreach teams into the community to connect people with cooling stations. "We see a ton of folks that are suffering from heat exhaustion, heat stroke, those kinds of things coming through every day. So, we’re constantly working with them to make sure they’re staying hydrated," Ian Apfelbaum, chief officer of the Homeless Alliance, said.
The shelter typically serves around 300 people each day. This week, they have seen close to 450 as more people seek refuge from the heat. The Homeless Alliance said anyone, not just those experiencing homelessness, is welcome to come inside if they need a place to cool down.
Original reporting: Oklahoma City News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
