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.
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