By Cameron Glymph, Florida Student News Watch
Editor’s note: To protect his privacy, we are identifying this individual only by the pseudonym “AJ.” This decision was made in consultation with local service providers who work with people experiencing homelessness.
When lightning rips through the skies of Tallahassee, “AJ” closes his eyes and surrenders himself to the weather.
Like the more than 31,000 other people experiencing homelessness in Florida, AJ is at the mercy of nature’s whims. In Florida, a state particularly vulnerable to climate change, this means dealing with more frequent and intense heat, cold and unpredictable precipitation, adding pressure and discomfort to his experiences surviving outdoors.
During days when the weather is bearable, AJ is able to move around easily, either on foot or with his bike, to businesses around town where he has built strong rapport with the owners.
“I have people that look out for me … I have spots where I can get up out of the weather,” AJ, 47, said in a series of interviews that took place in March of this year. He sat in a grassy break in the pavement with his legs stretched out in front of him.
For AJ, building these relationships has been essential. A business owner he knows well may allow him to catch shade under their store’s veranda or share water. Often, this is the only time during the day AJ is able to get relief from the elements.
Building routine in a changing climate
As climate change pushes weather to intense and variable extremes, AJ faces more challenges to maintaining his routine. The weather slows him down and tires him out, and makes it hard for him to have the energy to get around.
“It’s hotter than normal and it’s colder than normal,” AJ said. “If it’s raining, I have to adapt. There’s some things I can’t do in the rain — it slows everything down.”
Tisha Holmes, a professor of urban and regional planning at Florida State University, says that climate change complicates issues facing the populations of the southeastern United States.
“Climate change makes everything uncertain because there’s so much variation and lack of ability to predict the extreme (weather) event: When it’s going to happen, how it happens and how quickly it can happen,” Holmes said. For someone like AJ, this unpredictability frays at any stability he has cultivated.
AJ says that he views sleeping outside as an adventure — a mindset that he has grown to adapt from living unhoused in Florida for more than 13 years. He has struggled with substance use disorder in the past, and many shelters in the area have policies against substance use. He also lives with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. His circumstances are shared, according to Housing and Urban Development’s 2024 Point in Time Count — a snapshot of U.S. homelessness.
Mental health, heat and vulnerability
Of those who responded to the survey, 17% of unhoused people in Florida revealed they live with severe mental health issues and 13% report having a substance use disorder. Many unhoused people in the state do not have access to or the ability to continue consistent treatment for these issues.
People with schizophrenia are more susceptible to the effects of extreme heat because the disorder affects peoples’ abilities to regulate their body temperatures. This is especially prevalent with individuals who have schizophrenia and a co-occurring substance use disorder. Rising temperatures have also been linked to an increase in substance use related hospitalizations.
“I don’t like it when it’s hot,” AJ said. “I wish it would stay cold all year round…I have to be sure to not over-exert myself.”
As the summer approaches, rising temperatures pose an increasing threat. Experts predict Floridians will experience 30 more extreme heat days annually, or days above 95 degrees, than in past years. Overnight temperatures are also changing rapidly, with an expected increase of five to 10 degrees this year, offering little relief even when the sun is not out.
Johnna Coleman is the executive director of the Big Bend Continuum of Care. She says she has noticed an increase in heat-related ailments among the unhoused population she serves as climate change trends intensify.
“We definitely see sunburns, we see people with cracked or dry lips during the summer,” Coleman said. “We also see things like heat strokes.” Variability in weather patterns makes it harder to provide services to unhoused populations, she added.
Coleman says that keeping track of unhoused people, especially in extreme weather, is incredibly challenging and can be lethal. For AJ and thousands of others like him, adapting to these climate realities without housing makes survival a grueling, daily task, especially when storms arise.
“We don’t always have the resources to meet someone’s needs, to bring them in from out of whatever weather is impending,” Coleman said.
Although the Big Bend Continuum of Care works directly with Tallahassee city government and emergency management services to reach as many unhoused people as possible when intense weather events or storms arise, there is little guarantee they reach everyone who needs assistance.
A shrinking safety net
Last May, three tornadoes touched down in Tallahassee during the early morning hours. AJ was caught outside sleeping when the chaos started.
“There wasn’t any warning because nobody was expecting it — the rain was the warning,” AJ said. “I could hardly see (as) the wind was tearing down trees.”
Climate change doesn’t just affect people after they lose housing, it also creates conditions that make it harder for people to stay housed. Coleman says that there is usually a surge in people experiencing homelessness after natural disasters occur, mainly coming from people who lost their homes or shelter due to the weather.
“Climate change is a big contributing factor to housing insecurity,” added FSU professor Holmes, who also has studied climate gentrification. “It destabilizes our systems in different ways leading to economic, health, social and housing insecurity.
“Unhoused people might not be considered a segment of the population that needs to be planned for…(city governments are) not really seeing a connection between the place and the people.”
One short-term solution posed by Coleman is emergency housing arrangements in sturdy structures — such as community centers or school gyms — for those who, like AJ, don’t have access to organized shelters.
Resources available during the COVID-19 pandemic have slowly dwindled, and the Trump administration’s new budget cuts seek to decrease the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s budget by nearly one fifth.
“I would love to have funding for a cooling station to be opened every day,” Coleman said. “Or, unlimited resources for things like heaters, so that people don’t feel like they have to start a fire.”
For AJ, the solution is simple: He’s a self-proclaimed country boy from south Georgia and knows how to adapt to survive — but that doesn’t mean he can do it alone.
“Sleeping outside… you get the opportunity to always see people,” AJ said. “I have been embraced by the community. Nothing really goes unnoticed.”
This story was originally published by Florida Student News Watch and originally edited by program mentor Ashira Morris. Banner photo: AJ faces uncertainty as he navigates unprecedented weather without a place to call home (Credit: Des Lewis).
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