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Year-round emergency climate shelters could be coming to LA County
Downtown Los Angeles in early September as Southern California coped with a heat wave.
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Etienne Laurent
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AFP via Getty Images
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Topline:
Unhoused residents in L.A. County could soon have access to year-round emergency climate shelters.
Why now: The L.A. County Board of Supervisors approved a motion earlier this week to expand and transform the seasonal shelters to protect people from extreme weather conditions, like wildfires and heat waves, 24/7.
Why it matters: “The vision behind these climate shelters is straightforward — provide our most vulnerable populations a safe place to find relief from the increasingly harsh weather conditions our county is facing,” said Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who introduced the motion.
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The backstory: L.A. County currently offers cooling centers during extreme heat waves and temporary emergency shelters during the winter.
What's next: County officials have been directed to report back in 90 days to find funding for at least one emergency shelter in each of the eight Service Planning Areas. They’ve also been asked to identify sites or spaces, such as unused parking lots, that could house an emergency shelter on public or private land.
Read more … to learn more about how some unhoused people deal with extreme heat.
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