Bearing the Brunt of Exposure: How the Climate Crisis Affects Houseless People

By Dr Luisa T Schneider, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Houseless individuals lack shelter, infrastructure, and essential services, leaving them exposed to environmental hazards. A systemic cycle of violence, stigmatization, exclusion, and criminalization, pushes them even deeper into hazardous environments. Marginalized and often disregarded by society, they endure harsh weather and perilous surroundings (Nixon 2001). The concept of "exposure" emerges as a vital tool to the interconnected environmental and social justice challenges faced by houseless individuals (Goodling 2020). The bodies of these individuals are laid bare to the elements, mirroring their broader societal vulnerability and isolation. Their experiences serve as a stark warning to society, underscoring the significance of human vulnerability in extreme weather conditions.

Surviving the heat

Ensnared beneath an unyielding canopy of heat, Leipzig ground to a near standstill in June this year, marking the 27th consecutive year of oppressive warmth (Süddeutsche Zeitung, 2023). For Fritz and Eva, a houseless couple with whom I did ethnographic research between 2018 and 2022, the city became not just uncomfortable but a perilous threat to their existence. “Actually you feel like you live in a microwave. The sun blinds. It is all too bright. All clouds go away. Light never changes. And we don’t have sunglasses you know” Eva says blinking at me. 

She stares enviously at passersby in breathable summer dresses. Houseless people are unable to adjust what they wear to the weather since they must accept whatever is handed to them. Often, these are rough, heavy fabrics in dark hues. Fritz traverses the sweltering summer streets with his bare upper body exposed, his lower half ensconced in thick pants and sturdy hiking boots. Eva cannot undress. Her bare chest would incur fines, deemed a public nuisance. She has taken off her shoes and rolled-up her dark blue long sleeve and Jeans as far as possible; both are drenched in sweat.

Fritz, clears his parched throat and says: “The air gets very, very dry. You can feel your skin losing water, becoming like dust the more you sweat…kind of like the earth we sleep on. The sweat sticks to you and your clothes. You get rashes”. Since sun screen or after sun lotion is too expensive, exposed skin, stays exposed and irritated skin gets more irritated. 

To cool themselves, bodies perspire, but, like the earth they lose too much water. Fritz, his once-vibrant eyes now dimmed by the harshness of street life, trudges wearily along the bustling boulevard. His cracked lips yearn water. Staying hydrated becomes a constant concern (du Bray et al. 2023). Free drinking water, however, is scarce forcing Fritz and Eva to walk for kilometers across the city to reach aid organizations or street workers who hand it out. 

Once water is secured, the couple faces two options: drink until their thirst is quenched and then stay close to the aid organization until they need to pee or drink as little as possible so that they will not need to relieve themselves before they reach the place where they sleep which is about three kilometers away. Public urination draws fines between 30 and 500 euros and, if unpaid, these fines lead to imprisonment.

“It’s the love of my life this one” Fritz says with a node to Eva “but look” he points to an open wound on her arm, a result of a fall down a flight of stairs that now festers from being drenched in sweat and dirt. “She falls a lot in the heat and I cannot protect her, not really” Fritz says.  That Eva falls is unsurprising. Insufficient hydration causes dizziness, weakness and pounding headaches. “Like I said: microwave. Everything turns, it is super glaring and there is a buzzing sound in your head” Eva reiterates. 

"Why don't they just go swim in the lake?" someone once inquired after I gave a speech about surviving on the streets during climate crises. Indeed, why don't they? Fritz and Eva have tried to swim in one of Leipzig’s lakes countless times. Every time they were either directly chased away by housed people or the police was called who asked them to leave or be fined for causing public nuisance. “This, is a lake not a shower” cites Fritz what a police officer had told him. 

Some houseless people try to clean themselves and rehydrate at public water fountains, yet here too, they are fined for public nuisance if caught. The water they drink is often unfit for consumption, having stagnated for prolonged periods. To compound their troubles, these fountains are often switched off precisely when the scorching heat reaches its zenith, leaving rough sleepers with one less available option. In Leipzig many have begun to drink out of a river which is said to contain metals that are hazardous to human health. 

 “Well”, Franz a houseless friend of Fritz said when I asked him about this “they may kill us slowly but if I don’t get water I won’t live long enough to get sick.” Franz died on a mattress in front of his tent during a hot summer day. Not only did he know that his dire circumstances are a stark reflection of a world in turmoil but he eventually succumbed to it.

The plight of houseless people is turned into a nuisance. Due to loitering, camping in public spaces and public nuisance regulations, houseless individuals face eviction from shopping malls and train stations when seeking shelter from the sun, and they are often told to vacate park benches in the shade by both police and private security. 

Police told me that they encourage houseless individuals to remain in constant motion, with the assumption that they will seek aid organizations. However, in reality, they are just forced to stay on the move and competition for safe resting places among houseless people intensifies.

This forces many to sleep in entirely unprotected environments such as open streets (© Luisa. T. Schneider)

Camps built on top of former landfills (© Luisa. T. Schneider)

on makeshift beds without shade or protection from rain (© Luisa. T. Schneider),

or at places which have burnt down or near drowned (© Luisa. T. Schneider).

Fritz and Eva are no different.

Fearing heat stroke in their tent, they dragged their mattress under the open sky (image © Luisa. T. Schneider). Sleepless nights make them feel even more sensitive to heat during the day. 

Surviving the rain

While some of my housed friends wondered what had become of the radiant summer they were looking forward too as they strolled beneath overcast skies instead of sweating by the quarry pond, during their summer vacation in August. As they lamented the skies draped in shades of grey, and the relentlessly descending rain, my parents agreed with a report published by WDR (2023) which stated that summerly heatwaves, refreshing dips in swimming pools, and serene lakeside interludes, used to be sporadic and rather short while cooler interludes predominated. What both my friends and my parents did not see was that while they changed their summer plans from swimming to reading, from open air to indoor cinema, Fritz and Eva did not just struggle with a change in plans or pondered why August was so rainy. During rainy nights, Fritz and Eva trembled with cold. They had to get up every few hours to tape holes in their tent, drain water before it collapses the tent’s ceiling and, when the wind got to heavy hold, sometimes even rebuild their tent. 

Exposure and protection

Some housed individuals may not yet grasp the urgency of climate change, as the presence of shelter often fosters the illusion of control over temperatures and conditions. Within the comfort of their homes, air conditioners hum, fans provide respite, and cold showers offer comfort during summer. In winter, heaters and fires provide warmth. Weather becomes a topic for conversation rather than a personal experience, observed through windows rather than felt on the skin.

However, climate change is no distant concern; it has already enveloped us, affecting those struggling for survival just beyond our windows. For those experiencing houselessness, climate change isn't a distant headline or a matter of adjusting a thermostat. Their bodies bear the brunt of nature's unpredictability, enduring soaking rains, scorching sun, and numbing cold throughout the year.

Their plight should serve as an urgent wake-up call to society, a stark reminder that weather isn't merely a convenience but a reflection of a world teetering on the edge of collapse. While we often respond to those most directly exposed with a combination of criminalization and neglect, the reality is that exposure penetrates every facet of life. Our climate-controlled infrastructure solutions are superficial and fleeting. To truly protect ourselves, we must rethink our relationship with each other and with the world we inhabit.

References

du Bray, Margaret V., et al. "Beyond Extreme: Heat Emergency and Water Insecurity for People Experiencing Houselessness in Phoenix, Arizona, USA During and After the Heatwave of 2023." Human Ecology (2023): 1-10.

Goodling, Erin. "Intersecting hazards, intersectional identities: A baseline Critical Environmental Justice analysis of US homelessness." Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space3.3 (2020): 833-856.

Nixon, Rob. Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor. Harvard University Press, 2011.

Süddeutsche Zeitung. 2023. Wetter- Leipzig. Sehr sonnig und warm: Der Sommer 2023 in Sachsen. Panorama am 30. August 2023, 12:52 Uhr. Online: https://www.sueddeutsche.de/panorama/wetter-leipzig-sehr-sonnig-und-warm-der-sommer-2023-in-sachsen-dpa.urn-newsml-dpa-com-20090101-230830-99-12082#:~:text=Laut%20Wetterdienst%20war%20der%20Sommer,Liter%20Regen%20pro%20Quadratmeter%20gemessen.

WDR. 2023. Wetter. Sommer 2023 - ein Sommer wie früher? Stand: 26.07.2023, 10:05 Uhr. Online: https://www1.wdr.de/nachrichten/sommer-wie-frueher-wetter-prognose-100.html