Public-Private Effort Helps Dallas County Residents Survive Killer Heat - Leader Newsletter 2011
More than 20 Dallas County residents died this summer because of the relentless heat.
The total might have been higher if not for a unique partnership that provides air conditioners to low-income households that lack them. Dallas County officials use gifts from foundations and individuals to buy air conditioning units, and county employees donate the labor needed to install them.
The Dallas Foundation provides administrative support for this life-saving program through its Emergency Heat Relief Fund. Established with a seed grant from The Meadows Foundation, the Emergency Heat Relief Fund can accept gifts from individuals, organizations and foundations throughout the year. That allows the county to buy air conditioners when prices are lower. The fund also ensures that an outside agency – The Dallas Foundation – is carefully tracking all donations and expenses intended to help low-income residents.
Dallas Foundation donors contributed $22,800 to the fund this summer. The Meadows Foundation, the Harold Simmons Foundation and Communities Foundation of Texas also donated a total of $110,000 to the effort this year.
“This is a unique program in Texas,” said Zachary Thompson, director of the Dallas County Health and Human Services Department. “Without The Dallas Foundation and the other foundations, this program would not exist.”
Mr. Thompson began developing the heat relief program in 1998, during another blistering heat wave that left 35 county residents dead.
“Early in the summer, we started seeing a number of heat deaths among Dallas County residents who did not have working air conditioning,” he said. “We were amazed anyone in Texas would try to deal with this extreme heat without air conditioning.”
Prolonged heat is especially dangerous for the elderly, people with disabilities and chronic health problems, and families with very young children. Mr. Thompson began working with The Meadows Foundation to buy air conditioning units for low-income households. He asked county employees to volunteer time to install them. The county also set up a heat emergency hotline.
A dozen years later, the county has a well-tested system. Health department employees carry air conditioning units on their trucks. When people call the emergency hotline to report that they have no functioning air conditioner, an employee in the field can stop by to verify the problem and install a unit immediately. Dallas police officers also refer households to the program.
The county installed about 2,500 air conditioning units during this record-breaking summer, Mr. Thompson said. Without the program, the heat’s toll certainly would have been worse.
With the program, he said, “you’re reducing the number of people who have to go to the emergency room because of heat-related illnesses and, of course, preventing deaths.”
To donate to the Emergency Heat Relief Fund, please visit dallasfoundation.org and follow the “Donate to a Fund” link at the top right corner.