Can't sleep, can't eat: Extreme heat adds to stress for homeless people in Guilford (2024)

Billy Glover wiped sweat from his cheeks with a tattered cloth, smiled, and with a deft swoop of his right index finger, signaled drivers to turn left onto South Elm-Eugene Street.

A self-appointed traffic director, the unhoused 60-year-old concentrated on his work, trying to ignore the record-breaking outdoor heat, which by 2 p.m. on a recent August afternoon had soared to 98 with a heat index of 105.

“It’s hot, now, but I know where the shade is,’’ Glover said, motioning to trees and a thicket near the Interstate 40 offramp. “I ain’t died from it.’’

“I’ve been out here for about 10 years, but I’m good. I’ve got a sleeping bag, three walls and a roof,’’ said Glover, who served in the U.S. Navy as a young man, but now makes his home in a lean-to in nearby woods at one of Greensboro’s estimated 300 homeless encampments.

Food and water come from strangers who stop to share staples, bedding and a dollar here and there, Glover said, explaining he keeps faith that kind people will continue to provide.

“I go to that little store down there,’’ he points with his cowboy hat brim, ‘’and get a cup of ice when I need it, or I go to Waffle House,’’ he said. “I live like I live.’’

Glover is but one of an estimated 1,000 people in Guilford County living without a home and enduring the health threat of extreme summer heat, according to estimates by city officials. This week and the Labor Day holiday bring a sweltering wave of highs in the mid-to-low 90s and a heat index that topped out on Wednesday at 100.

Summers ahead promise to be even hotter, experts forecast. And doctors caution that with that heat, comes existential risks like heat stroke and exacerbation of underlying medical conditions.

“Yeah, global warming is true,’’ Glover said, shaking his head. “But you know, when you wake up every morning, you’ve got to be positive.’’

While Greensboro, High Point and Winston-Salem have designated “cooling centers’’ where the unhoused can find free water and respite in air-conditioning, such centers aren’t practical for many people living rough, unhoused residents and their advocates say.

In Greensboro, the largest cooling center with 24/7 access is the Interactive Resource Center at 407 E. Washington St., where potential violence has become a serious concern among clients this year.

The IRC, which had long been a day center for the needy, began providing around-the-clock hours in January and saw its client numbers skyrocket, city administrators said.

With more people, came more conflict.

Between Jan. 17 and May 22, police and emergency personnel came to the IRC for 642 disruptions, which included larceny, weapons possession, assaults and a stabbing, according to city officials.

In April, for instance, the IRC served nearly 1,000 people, about 550 more than the same time in 2023.

Elizabeth Alverson, a supportive housing analyst who tracks data and the needs of the unhoused for Greensboro’s Homelessness Prevention Services, acknowledged problems with safety at IRC.

“I have heard rumblings from folks about an increase’’ in safety issues at IRC, Alverson said, emphasizing that women must be extra cautious in such shelters.

But can the problem be remedied so that folks can find coolness without sacrificing their security?

Alverson said yes, noting the IRC has developed a three-month plan to increase security and presented it to the Greensboro City Council.

Changing to 24/7 service brought to IRC, “unintended circumstances you can’t predict that require solutions,’’ Alverson said.

Christina Gonzalez, 42, found shade on a recent scorching afternoon at Greensboro’s Center City Park downtown and said she won’t go to the IRC because of safety concerns.

Her summer days are spent trying to manage her anxiety, ducking into the public library to cool off and searching for a safe place to sleep, she said.

She’s spent many of this summer’s nights bedded down on the concrete surface of a parking deck under construction downtown.

But sleep is near impossible with peak heat, humidity and the threat of being assaulted or robbed, said Gonzalez, who said she owned a landscaping business and was “very independent’’ until eight years ago.

“I couldn’t sleep at all last night,’’ she said, noting mosquitos added to her misery.

Coping with this summer’s heat means hydrating often, Gonzalez said. “I’m drinking mostly water,’’ she said, noting her pink thermal water bottle that hangs from her hip. “Or sometimes Gatorade. Sometimes my daughter comes by and brings me drinks.’’

Heat also heightens tension among the unhoused who are already feeling a giant burden of stress, Gonzalez reminded. “You notice people getting irritable, getting an attitude because of the heat.’’

And being overheated can trigger increases in psychiatric symptoms among the unhoused who live with mental health struggles, experts said.

“My anxiety is much worse in the heat,’’ Gonzalez agreed.

Heat can also rob you of your appetite, she said. “I can’t eat in this heat. You eat something and you automatically feel sick.’’

***

Jason Bryant leaned against a street light post along South Elm Eugene Street as the afternoon sun beat down on him at about 96 degrees.

“I haven’t ate nothing in days. ... I just deal with it. Try to find shade where I can. It’s been a year now I’ve been out here.’’

The 40-year-old has psychiatric symptoms that make it nearly impossible to keep a job, and he’s trying to survive, he said. Through an arrangement with a local motel, Bryant is able to receive his government-provided psychiatric medications using the motel’s mailing address, he said.

“I just don’t have nobody, and I don’t know how to do certain stuff. I’m hearing voices sometimes, seeing things that are not really there,’’ said Bryant, who sleeps — but warily and lightly — beneath a bridge most nights.

For Bryant, finding or affording transportation to one of Greensboro and High Point’s eight cooling centers would be difficult, he said, as he has no money for transportation and no vehicle.

It’s a problem for many unhoused people living outside of downtown Greensboro and struggling with extreme weather, Alverson agreed.

It’s “a gap in our system,’’ she said, noting that only unhoused individuals with connections to public agencies that provide them case managers benefit from vouchers for public transportation. “A lot of people may not have a case manager,’’ she said.

Transportation is an impediment in Forsyth County, too, where Lisa Russell Uber, an advocate for the unhoused, operates the help agency, Mama Lisa’s Love.

“I’ve seen people near heat stroke, throwing up because of the heat, suffering from exhaustion and dehydration, and people with asthma suffering and not being able to move around,’’ said Uber, 56, of Belews Creek.

Anticipating extreme heat on Wednesday, Uber and her volunteers on Tuesday iced down two huge coolers full of water and planned to drive across Forsyth County on Wednesday, distributing drinks and snacks to the county’s unhoused who number 500-plus and live in 270 tent encampments.

“We drive around and find them,’’ said Uber, who often provides icy neck rolls to those in need. “Because a lot of them can’t afford bus passes.’’

Uber says she’s seen high heat do damage to the morale of plenty of the unhoused she serves. “The heat causes changes in peoples’ moods and creates short tempers.’’

And for the unhoused living with mental illness, “many are agitated. It’s a whole downward spiral,’’ Uber said.

Most weeks she’s out distributing drinks and food three times a week, said Uber, a former executive assistant to corporate CEOs who in 2017 decided to begin helping folks without four walls. She funds her operation with community donations and her own bank account and hopes to soon establish Mama Lisa’s Love as a 501©(3) nonprofit.

For Randy Mills, spikes in heat makes life harder as he strives to begin a career as a cook in Greensboro while living without a home.

“I usually sleep at the library, because sleeping outside is too dangerous,’’ said Mills, 40, who drinks water to keep cool and found fellowship and shade from the tree canopy at Center City Park on a recent 98-degree day.

Helping hands are welcome when it comes to assisting the growing number of unhoused in the Triad, officials said.

Alverson, who noted Guilford County’s municipalities are uniting in their efforts to combat weather extremes brought by global warming, suggests Triad residents who want to help may drop water off at shelters.

Uber recommends that people wanting to donate supplies stop and introduce themselves to someone who is unhoused. By sharing a gift of food or water, people can learn that they have plenty in common with their struggling neighbors, Uber said.

“Let’s break the stigma. Stop and have a conversation with someone. Take them water. Make them feel more a member of the community,’’ Uber said. “Because at the end of the day, we are all human beings.’’