Ana Vargas wants to know what resources in her Salem community can help her deal with growing heat in the summer.
Vargas, who is 68, has lived in a one bedroom apartment for about 16 years.
“I am sure that I am prepared because the air conditioner works, it cools the air very well,’’ she said in Spanish. “The only downside is the bill after. It’s the same as the wintertime.”
Vargas was one of some 60 people who attended a community event on Tuesday night meant to focus on issues of extreme heat in their largely Latino neighborhood. The community, called the Point, is a dense community with limited parks and public spaces.
The two-hour event, held in a community space called Espacio, included a conversation between local residents and a presentation, translated into Spanish, that offered tips and resources to stay cool. It was hosted by the North Shore CDC and the Salem Alliance for the Environment, known as SAFE.
Shantel Alix, director of community building for North Shore CDC, said climate issues often intersect with housing and financial issues, when people can’t afford to pay for air conditioning, transportation, or even sunscreen.
Alix said last year, the North Shore CDC worked with 80 residents, through individual conversations, focus groups and asset mapping, and found the biggest barriers to cooling were the higher electricity bills and lack of cool places to escape the heat.
“When you look at policies, when you look at access in the community, people can apply for fuel assistance in the winter. They cannot do that in the summertime,” Alix said. “Those programs don’t exist. There’s no policy addressing that need.”
She said the North Shore CDC installed five monitors that capture data around heat concentration around Salem and found that the ones in The Point neighborhood stood out.
Alix said green space and infrastructure affect heat in areas. “Because of those reasons, and the Point neighborhood being the most condensed neighborhood in the entire Salem city, it’s at risk of being vulnerable to extreme heat.”
At the crowded event, hosts prompted groups to discuss how prepared they feel to face extreme heat. They covered basics like what exactly extreme heat is and what causes it. They discussed how they deal with the excessive heat in different settings like at home, in public and in transportation.
Residents left with cooling kits and had a chance to enter a raffle for a chance to win an air conditioner.
