Updated: Wednesday, April 14, 2021 - 4:50pm
A regional network designed to help vulnerable people finds itself in need of help. And lives are at stake.
The Valley’s Heat Relief Network wants to avoid a repeat of last year when 207 people in Maricopa County died due to heat related causes between May and October. That’s more than double the year before when the county health department confirmed 85 heat associated deaths.
“So we see a very direct correlation between the regional heat relief network and the numbers of partners that it has and the amount of support that we’re able to offer and the number of people who are losing their lives to the extreme summer heat,” Amy St. Peter, deputy executive director of the Maricopa Association of Governments, told the Phoenix City Council on Tuesday.
Glendale leads in the number of homeless in the West Valley. People without shelters have to endure the new obstacles of COVID-19 and record-breaking heat levels, both of which are putting increased pressure on the city of Glendale and its outreach programs.
At a city council workshop Dec. 8, Glendale Community Services Director Jean Moreno was scheduled to review grant allocation recommendations. The city receives annual Department of Housing and Urban Development and Community Planning and Development grant allocations.Â
According to the workshop agenda, âThe programs financed with HUD CPD funds are intended to expand economic opportunities by investing in affordable housing, living wage, and quality of life programs designed to alleviate the causes and condition of poverty in communities as well as promote self-sufficiency and reduce homelessness.â