Under the blazing Arizona Sun, 59-year-old Alfred Handley leans back in his wheelchair next to a Phoenix freeway. A street medicine team gives him an intravenous saline solution from a bag hanging on a pole. The IV drip will help rehydrate him.
Phoenix, Arizona, is America’s hottest metropolitan area. Temperatures regularly hit triple digits in the summer. Nearly half of the heat-related deaths last year in Maricopa County were those of residents without homes.
To protect the homeless community from life-threatening heat illness, a Phoenix nonprofit called Circle the City introduced an IV rehydration program.
Six years ago, a car struck Handley. The accident left him wheelchair-bound. He says he’s been treated poorly at traditional clinics and hospitals.
“It’s a lot better than going to the hospital,” Handley says of the streetside IV.
Circle the City’s team searches for patients in encampments in dry riverbeds and sweltering alleys. About 15% are dehydrated enough for a saline drip.
“We go out every day and find them,” says nurse practitioner Perla Puebla. “We do their wound care, medication refills for diabetes, antibiotics, high blood pressure.”
Healthcare providers across the country work to better protect homeless patients in the summer heat. Dehydration symptoms can include headache, extreme thirst, dizziness, and dry mouth.
According to Dr. Dave Munson, medical director for Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, “It’s certainly something to worry about.” He notes that temperatures in Boston, Massachusetts, hit 100º with 70% humidity during June’s heat wave. People without homes are vulnerable to very hot and very cold weather. They also often can’t regulate body temperature well due to certain medications or high blood pressure.
Circle the City’s core mission is providing respite care. The organization has 100 beds for those not well enough to return to the streets after a hospital stay. It also partners with medical staff in seven Phoenix hospitals. When patients recover, the group works to find transitional shelter or permanent housing for them.
Staff members distribute tens of thousands of water bottles each summer. Workers teach people about the dangers of hot weather, says Dr. Matt Essary. He works at one of five mobile clinics that stop outside soup kitchens and other homeless services.
In May, Rachel Belgrade waited outside Circle the City’s truck with her black-and-white puppy, Bo. Essary wrote her a prescription for the blood pressure medicine she lost when a man stole her bicycle. Belgrade accepted two bottles of water to cool off as the morning heat rose.
Circle the City staff members “make all of this easier,” says Belgrade.
As you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me. — Matthew 25:40
