Urban cooling centers offer relief during heat warning

As temperatures across the state hit 90 degrees Fahrenheit on Friday, cooling centers in Baltimore City offered relief from dangerous conditions.

According to the National Weather Service, the temperature in Baltimore reached 97 degrees on Friday afternoon and the heat index was 105 degrees. This metric measures air temperature and relative humidity to determine how the temperature feels to the body. Highs of 95 degrees and a heat index of around 104 degrees are expected on Saturday. Due to the sweltering temperatures, the city’s health officer issued a “Code Red” extreme heat warning, which is triggered when the heat index is 105 degrees or higher.

According to the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, low-income households are more at risk during the summer heat because of rising electricity costs, lack of access to affordable cooling systems and cuts to funding for government energy assistance programs.

The Mayor’s Office of Homeless Services, Baltimore City Housing Authority and senior centers will open cooling centers on Red Alert days. People are also encouraged to use one of the city’s Pratt libraries for a cool break. Certain shelters and social service agencies will also offer cold water distribution for homeless people living without shelter during the alert days.

As temperatures rose around 11:30 a.m. Friday, people flocked to the Bond Street cooling center run by St. Vincent De Paul Baltimore. Men sat at a distance around the dining room and on the benches, while women gathered in groups, some with infants and others with children.

Al Turner sat in a back row with a cane and a packed lunch, watching game shows and chatting with friends. Turner, who has been homeless for “too long,” has been coming to the Bond Street cooling center regularly for “too many” years, he said.

“I take a nap or watch TV,” Turner said, adding that his favorite is “The Price is Right.”

It’s not a glamorous setup, but Turner is happy to have it.

Without the center, he would “probably be sweating under a tree somewhere,” he said.

St. Vincent’s staff guide the families and individuals who come in to cool off through each station. For James Bobbitt, this is particularly fulfilling work, as he himself was homeless and visited the Bond Street Center in the summers of the 2000s.

“Today we’re just handing out sack lunches,” Bobbitt, who has worked for St. Vincent for a little over a year, told the newly arrived residents. The center’s cook, who normally prepares hot lunches, was absent on Friday, so the center offered only sack lunches.

On days with temperatures between 27 and 32 degrees Celsius, Bobbitt estimates that about 40 people come every day.

“I never thought I would be doing this kind of work, but it’s great work,” he said. “People need help.”

Projected cooling costs from June to September 2024 rose to a national average of $719, compared to $476 in 2014, due to rising temperatures and the increase in extreme heat events over the past decade, according to calculations by the National Energy Assistance Directors Association and the Center for Energy Poverty and Climate. In the same months last year, cooling costs were $661.

Nearly half of a household’s energy use in the summer is used by cooling systems, according to BGE, which supplies electricity to the city of Baltimore and central Maryland. The company invested about $1.4 billion in infrastructure improvements, operations and maintenance of the power grid in 2023.

“BGE customers rely on us to meet their energy needs every minute of every day of the year,” the company said in an email. “That’s why we’re continually improving the electric grid and natural gas system to make them more reliable, safe and resilient.”

PJM, the company that manages the grid from which BGE gets power, says it has “sufficient” electricity supplies to meet expected demand. So far this summer, the company’s peak electricity demand has been June 21. The company issued heat alerts for June and one through next week to “prepare transmission system operators and power generation personnel and facilities for the expected increase in electricity demand.”

According to PJM, operating a cooling center like the one used by Elizabeth Ottey and Pamela Harris would not result in a significant increase in overall electricity demand.

Both Ottey and Harris have been living at the Weinberg Housing & Resource Center for several months after both lost their previous housing. The facility, 620 Fallsway, also serves as a cooling center during the summer.

While other cooling centers in the city, such as St. Vincent’s on Bond Street, have stations for various services – meals, water, case management assistance – the Weinberg Center has a climate-controlled room with a bed, tables and chairs that serves as a cooling center.

On Friday around 1 p.m., only one person was still enjoying the artificial cold: Elizabeth Ottey.

“(I) go out and get a coffee, sit around, talk to my friends and when it gets really hot I come here and watch my music videos,” Ottey said.

She especially likes hard rock music, Ottey said. On Friday afternoon, she watched “X Factor.” After her music videos, Ottey will spend hot days calling her friends. She was a fry cook at Milt’s Rendezvous in Brooklyn Park before heart problems and other health complications left her unable to work.

She and Harris, also a former cook who joined Ottey at the cooling center shortly after 1 p.m., appreciate the meals at the center on hot days and year-round, but miss cooking for themselves. There is plenty of cold cereal there.

“I’m grateful and happy that this place exists,” said Harris, who was formerly homeless. “Otherwise I would have ended up on the streets, sleeping at bus stops and so on. This is no joke. I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy.”

Harris usually spends afternoons in the cold storage facility watching cooking videos on her phone. They both hope that by this time next year, they’ll be in the privacy of their own homes on hot days, preparing Fourth of July meals for the family. But for now, the Fallsway location will do, they say.