Climate change is killing people experiencing homelessness.

People who are

unhoused and unsheltered are uniquely vulnerable to environmental changes. By
2050, air pollution related-mortality is expected to rise by an additional 20-30%.
The Homeless Hub notes that people experiencing homelessness experience higher
rates of respiratory and cardiovascular conditions from air pollution due to the
extended periods of time they spend outside. Beyond pollution-caused health
impacts, the growing frequency of storms, floods, extreme cold, and dangerous
heat waves all disproportionately affect and harm people experiencing
homelessness. Just a few weeks ago, a Nashville flood killed two people
experiencing homelessness as it destroyed a campsite. In LA County, 19 people
experiencing homelessness died over just one weekend during a heatwave.
According to the U.S. Global Change Research Program, there were three times
the number of heat waves in the 2010s than there were in the 1960s. For those who
may be living on the streets without stable shelter, a lack of access to cool drinking
water or air conditioning significantly increases the threat of heat stroke. Even
without severe heat waves, a generally warming climate also promotes the spread
of certain diseases. The progressively early onset of spring increases the “range
and strength of the West Nile Virus,” which is spread by mosquitoes who thrive in
warm weather, the Homeless Hub reports. Individuals who have nowhere to sleep
except outside or who are forced to spend long hours outdoors due to lack of
shelter are more likely to experience the harmful effects of a changing climate,
whether in the form of pollution, heat, or disease.