---
title: "What Cheryl Henderson Does All Day to Stay Alive"
canonical: "https://anchor.is/docket/issue/48/lived/article/37300/what-cheryl-henderson-does-all-day-to-stay"
publication: "The Docket"
publisher: "The Docket"
language: "en-US"
guide: "https://anchor.is/docket/llms.txt"
author: "Seth D. Carrington"
author_url: "https://anchor.is/docket/team/30"
issue: 48
section: "lived"
section_name: "Human Stories"
published: 2026-09-03
updated: 2026-09-04
word_count: 224
source_links: 1
---

# What Cheryl Henderson Does All Day to Stay Alive

*By [Seth D. Carrington](<https://anchor.is/docket/team/30/markdown>)*

*September 3, 2026*

[Read on the website](<https://anchor.is/docket/issue/48/lived/article/37300/what-cheryl-henderson-does-all-day-to-stay>)

Cheryl Henderson takes the trash to the curb and climbs the stairs back to her Third Ward apartment in hundred-degree heat. She has asthma and COPD. At the top she grabs water, sits before a fan, waits for the dizziness to break. "It feels like my lungs are closing up on me and I'm choking," she told the [Houston Press](https://www.houstonpress.com/news/houston-renters-say-ac-ordinance-could-save-lives/).

Her apartment: 520 square feet, built 1938. One window unit held together with tape; the other's compressor is dead. She runs fans and blackout curtains all day, pays $200 a month in electricity from disability. Wakes in sweat, takes cold showers, and when it gets bad enough she sits in the stairwell hoping for a draft. Houston's AC ordinance is months from enforcement. A neighbor stops by to make sure she's still breathing.

Nobody calls any of this work. It is.

**What Henderson runs every day**
- 1 window AC held together with electrical tape
- 1 landlord-provided AC, compressor dead
- 4 portable fans, 2 ceiling fans
- 1 borrowed box fan from Northeast Action Collective
- Blackout curtains drawn all day

**What it costs**
- Electric: $199.98/month (disability income)
- Rent: $813 (mostly subsidized)
- Food: Houston Food Bank

**What the apartment reaches:** ~90°F at peak sun, by her estimate

**Who else:** Roughly 20,000 Houstonians lack adequate cooling, per Houston Press reporting

## More

- [Human Stories — Issue 48](<https://anchor.is/docket/issue/48/lived/markdown>)
- [Issue 48](<https://anchor.is/docket/issue/48/markdown>)
- [Publication guide](<https://anchor.is/docket/llms.txt>)