The Longest, Hottest Summer Day

When people think of homeless youth, the season that often comes to mind is winter. A young person needs blankets, coats, gloves, scarves, hats, socks and boots, a warm meal, and a roof over their heads to fight the cold. Then there are the holidays, a season oof celebrations built around family traditions, gifts, and belonging. Yet the summer season brings a different set of needs to youth experiencing homelessness.

Ask any youth who has experienced extended or repeated homelessness.  The sweltering heat creates a specific kind of crisis. The winter solstice marks the shortest day in the year. At our sites and at many other organizations you find winter kit packing, coat drives, extended shelter beds, holiday meals, and games. The summer solstice marks the longest hottest days of the year, and yet the same urgency is gone.

The reality is extreme heat, like extreme cold, is one of the deadliest weather conditions in the world. In the U.S., where summer has barely begun, repeated heat advisories across the country have left youth, the elderly, and those working or living outdoors among the most vulnerable to the heat wave’s harmful impacts.

For young people ages 18-25 without stable housing, the heat isn’t an inconvenience. It’s a real threat.

At Covenant House sites across the South and East—Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Missouri, New Jersey and in New York—the call to support homeless youth doesn’t get a vacation.  Southern summers bring triple digit heat indexes, dangerous humidity, and heat advisories, along with afternoon thunderstorms. A young person sleeping outside, in a car, or couch surfing between unstable situations in 105-degree weather, is in just as perilous a situation as they would be sleeping outdoors in freezing temperatures.

When college dorms close for the summer, young people with no home to return to suddenly face a loss of the security they had for the nine months of the school year. This is what Prince, a resident at Covenant House Texas, experienced. During the school year, he was working tirelessly toward a future, and when the spring semester ended, and the dorms closed, Prince was left with nowhere to go. Until he found Covenant House. Since becoming a resident, Prince has become a social media intern, turning his graphic design skills into compelling social media posts, that in turn help youth who may be facing the same situation he was in. His story is not unusual. It shows that for many youth, homelessness waits at the end of the school semester.

Summer needs are different that winter needs, but homeless youth facing excessive heat needs things like:

• Hydration: Water, electrolyte

• Hygiene essentials: Soap, feminine hygiene products, deodorant, bug spray, sunscreen, and sunburn aid

• Breathable clothing: Clothes that can be worn in the summer months that are also acceptable to wear to work

• Shelter: Food, a home, a place to stay safe and cool

As temperatures rise, so do the urgent needs of youth who are unhoused.

Homelessness isn’t seasonal. The summer isn’t just for fun, grilling, pool parties, and time spent on the beach. At Covenant House, when youth like Prince show up in June, July, and August, the crisis is just as urgent as it would be in December, January, and February. Covenant House is there for them, and you can be, too. Learn how you can get involved and help ensure young people have a safe place to turn when temperatures rise.