Non-profit and faith-based organizations told Phoenix officials Monday that they are overrun with homeless people and families trying to escape the heat and the only option left is for the city to help them create a year-round shelter to provide relief from the Valley's extreme elements.
In all, 24 people Valley-wide have died from heat-related problems since July 16. That means Maricopa County had more such deaths in eight days than it had all of last year. Tempe and Mesa each reported one heat-related death last week.
During the weekend, Phoenix officials set up cooling stations for the homeless outside Central Arizona Shelter Services, an overcrowded shelter at 13th Avenue and Madison Street.
But homeless advocates say it isn't enough.
"There's no place for them to go," said Pastor Carl Mangold of Family Promise, a non-profit organization that serves homeless people.
"I have to turn away about 30 families every week, and I'm getting calls every day. We've hit a heat crisis where people are dying and our non-profits are overtaxed, understaffed . . . and working on a bare-bones budget."
Phoenix police reported three more heat-related deaths over the weekend, bringing the city's death toll to 22.
At least 14 of the dead were homeless, which prompted Phoenix officials to set up an air-conditioned bus and tents with fans outside the CASS facility. The setup is available from noon to 8 p.m. and will remain in place at least through Sunday.
Danny Milliron, 47, took advantage of the cool air inside the parked bus Monday.
"I'm trying to stay out of the heat and I'm drinking water, but it's not helping," the homeless man said. He said he passed out last week and was treated by paramedics.
Kimberly Coulber, 27, keeps her young children with their father while she finds a way to stay out of the sun.
"I'm miserable and irritated," she said. "This kind of heat is not for me."
Homeless advocates praised the city for supplying cold water but pressed city officials to do more.
"The city has done a great job, but we need to find shelters," said Terry Boyer, director of the Day Resource Center. It has served about 100 homeless people over the past four days.
City officials met with the non-profit and faith-based groups Monday in hopes of finding more places that might open their doors to homeless people during the day. None was found.
Grace Lutheran Church at Third and McDowell streets and St. Mary Basilica at Third and Van Buren streets are open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., but other area church leaders say they are not set up to take in homeless people.
Meggan Medina, executive director of Arizona Coalition to End Homelessness, urged the city to look into providing a year-round, low-demand shelter that area non-profits could operate. A low-demand shelter is a place homeless people can go without having to meet a certain set of requirements to stay.
"People are at their breaking point," she said. "It needs to happen now. What's going to happen in a couple days when those people, already at their breaking point, say they just can't do it anymore?"
The group pitched their ideas, which included using a city building as a year-round shelter, to a Human Services official who pledged to take the information back to other city officials.
"I wish things are as simple as just handing over the keys," said Moises Gallegos, deputy director of the Phoenix Human Services Department.
Marcus Aurelius, Phoenix's emergency management coordinator, said the city is focusing on the immediate problem.
"We're taking this in steps," he said. "There are no simple solutions. We're just getting through day by day."
It's not just the homeless succumbing to the heat.
The latest bodies were found Friday night and Saturday morning in Phoenix. One of the victims was found inside his home, where the evaporative cooler was turned off.
The Valley's deadly heat wave has drawn national attention. Corporations and people nationwide are pitching in with thousands of water bottles.
Pete Liakakis, chairman of the Chatham County Commission in Georgia, is donating 100 electric fans to Phoenix after reading about the Valley heat-related deaths.
He hoped city officials would start a program similar to one he helped start after a heat wave rolling over that area repeatedly claimed lives.
"I wanted to help them get a program going so they could help people who didn't have fans or a cooling system," he said.
