Austin isn't fully prepared for extreme heat, city report says

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Heat is responsible for more deaths than any other form of extreme weather, but the city of Austin isn't fully prepared to combat it.

The information was revealed after a new report was published by the city of Austin's Office of the City Auditor. "We found that the city has multiple plans and strategies related to dealing with extreme heat. So we're on we're on a good track," said Deputy City Auditor Jason Hadavi.

"We could do a little bit better with building some measurable goals, allocating funding to support those goals, and coordination across departments throughout the city," he said.

Hadavi said that one of the major issues with the plans is the lack of a central leadership force. Currently, many of the programs are overseen by the Office of Climate Action and Resilience.

"They have the ability to provide guidance and to advise departments on strategies that they should implement. But there's there's no authority," he said.

These issues are directly impacting much of the city's unhoused population. Between 2018 and 2023, nearly two dozen people experiencing homelessness died as a result of heat exposure, according to Homeless Strategy Officer David Gray.

"They have people ride around and give up water, you know. And there's a lot of people that do, but they don't get them all," said Darrell Ferguson, who's lived on the streets for thirty years.

Helping fight the heat

"We know that heat is impacting a lot of people, and we don't have the funding right now to actually provide to community organization organizers to help us with that," said Marc Coudert, Climate Resilience and Adaptation Manager with the city.

On Thursday, March 27, the city announced a new effort to find solutions for heat. The city's Office of Climate Action and Resilience and Homeless Strategy Office were awarded a $70,000 grant by C40 Cities.

The funds will be used for two projects.

"We're working really closely with an organization called Urban Alchemy. They help community members in downtown and in the area experiencing homelessness, and what we want to do is work with them to, one, try out some kind of intervention, like a misting tent or bottled water or something, and then ask people, like, is it working? What's not working?" said Coudert.

The second part of the project includes surveying people experiencing homelessness to determine their needs and what they think works.

"Then on our side, we're working closely with Austin Public Health, Homeless Strategy Office and other departments, who can sort of use that information to better make decisions around heat mitigation and heat safety," Coudert said.

Coudert said the ultimate goal is getting feedback from the people heat impacts.

"We want to make sure we're not coming with solutions, but actually coming with an open mind and then hearing what the solutions are from the local community members and seeing what they might say are innovative ways to mitigate heat in the community."

Funding inadequacies and heat mitigation

While these funds could help mitigate some of the issues the city is facing, they're just a drop in the bucket.

One example given in the city auditor's report focused on an inventory of the city's trees. Tree canopies can help reduce heat and the phenomenon known as the Urban Heat Island effect.

In 2024, the city council noted a need for this inventory. City staff determined that inventory would cost around $10 million. Those funds have not yet been provided, according to the report.

"They haven't been asked to conduct the inventory quite yet, but that's an example of where funding is going to be needed to implement several of these strategies in order to move the city forward," said Hadavi.

The report uses a tool developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to determine a city's readiness. Cities are rated from levels one to five.

Austin was ranked between a level three and a level four on the scale. This means the city has "guidance or regulations" in place to improve a city's infrastructure and plans in place to expand natural resources.

"You may look at the the the effectiveness of one plan and find that it's further along that maturity model than the next plan," Hadavi said.

The city has several plans in place, including a Heat Resilience Playbook and the Climate Equity Plan, however, the report found these plans lack concrete steps for implementation or measurable targets. Without these, the report said, "the City may not be able to effectively monitor or evaluate its extreme heat resilience-related efforts."

The report found some funds exist for programs, but funding isn't always directly tied to heat resilience efforts.