North Texas organization helps homeless community during extreme heat
FORT WORTH – Hot temperatures returned to North Texas this week – so it's important to remember to take breaks and get out of the heat, and make sure to stay hydrated if it's necessary to be outside.
Those things are more difficult for those experiencing homelessness and don't have access to air conditioning or running water.
Although it's September, the peak of summer heat is upon North Texas.
Diana Salazar works for DRC Solutions, a group that tries to get resources directly to homeless North Texans.
"We just expect hot, all the time," Salazar said.
"Someone we knew two years ago died from it. He got dehydrated, and he overheated and died," said Leslie Barwick, who said she's experienced homelessness off and on for 10 years. More on than off.
"I was in a domestic violence situation for a while and I felt like I had to leave," she said.
She lives in a tent in South Fort Worth with her partner. Access to water is a big issue.
"For the most part just been out here in the shade, we get ice when we can, we got a couple places we can get ice for free and water," said Barwick.
Crystal Drake sleeps just down the dirt road from Barwick.
"Just stay hydrated because we don't have nowhere else to go," said Drake.
Even when she does get water, the heat still causes problems.
"It was so hot the other day that the jugs that we have the water in, we keep it in the shade but it's so hot that I took a drink and it burned my throat it was that hot," said Drake.
"Dehydration is the first and probably most significant one that we see," said Lauren King, the executive director of Partnership Home, formerly known as the Tarrant County Homeless Coalition. She said summer is a particularly tough time for the homeless community.
"When it doesn't get cool at night, it really poses an issue because you don't have that time for that temperature to drop," said King.
Barwick and Drake say they want to get out of the heat and into a home, but the deck is stacked against them.
"We applied for housing about a year and a half ago," said Barwick.
"Some people think that it's just because you don't want to work, or a lot of people think they're just on drugs or alcohol or whatever, but it's not that," said Drake. "My vehicle got wrecked and totaled, and then I lost my job, and it literally left me out here in the woods."
Until they do find permanent housing, people like Salazar will be braving the elements, to get them what they need to stay alive.
"It's hard to get the resources that they need," she said.
