‘When it’s cold, there are shelters, but when it’s hot, you are on your own.’ : Street Smarts of Homeless Tested by Challenge of Escaping Record Heat

With the heat draped over Los Angeles like a buffalo robe, you wouldn’t have thought there was a premium on wool blankets Thursday. But Harold Lane was plenty worried about his two flowered comforters and, in fact, had tucked them protectively under the lower rungs of the shopping cart he was pushing around downtown.

One hundred degrees plus in the shade or not, “you have to keep a close eye on them, or people will steal them easy as that,” said Lane, who, like a handful of other street people, was sitting barefoot in the tree-lined park at City Hall.

A 20-year veteran of the streets, Lane, like other downtowners, has learned a few tricks to beat the heat. Nearby, city workers were lunching at the outdoor mall restaurants and sipping fancy bottled water. Lane and his friend Anthony Almeido had their own version--a large plastic soda bottle that they had filled with water from a drinking fountain.

Lane didn’t have an air-conditioned office to run back to later, but he planned to hit the water spigot on the City Hall lawn for a quick midday cool-down. And, while the office workers fled home to their air-conditioned houses, Lane was planning on bedding down on the cool grass nearby. He had no desire to go to one of the mission shelters where, as he tells it, all those bodies crammed together in the dormitories can generate more heat than Hoover Dam.

For the homeless, the heat can pose as many problems as the cold, although of a different nature.

“It gets abusive out there on the streets,” said Ruth Schwartz, spokeswoman for the Shelter Partnership Inc., a nonprofit social service organization. “Everyone’s disposition gets worse in hot weather, and if you have lots of other problems like food, shelter and safety to worry about, it gets tense.”

Some cities, such as Chicago, have opened shelters during heat waves. In Los Angeles, when temperatures go below 40 degrees, temporary shelters are opened to accommodate street people, but nothing similar is in place here in summer, said Bob Vilmur of the city Community Development Department. “It’s ironic, but last April we had two instances of where we opened the shelters because it was so cold.” Fran Seizer, executive director of the Venice Family Clinic, noted that while there are homeless people who live at the beach year-round, street people from other areas do not flock to the beach in hot weather. “They can’t afford to get here, and they want to stay where there are meals and shelter.”

In the last couple of days, the clinic staff has treated homeless clients for sunburn, dehydration and hypertension aggravated by the heat.

“Most doctors would say, ‘Get some bed rest.’ But of course, these people don’t have beds, or if they do, they usually have to give them up during the day,” Seizer said.

Meals Geared to Summer

At Valley Shelter in North Hollywood, 135 adults and children receive meals geared to summer--cold salads, lots of juices and other liquids. And the cafeteria is popular for another reason: It’s the only room that is air-conditioned.

“Children are especially vulnerable,” said Nancy Biaconi, shelter spokeswoman. “We treat a lot of children for adhesions on their scalp from being burned in the sun. And while it might be OK to keep milk and canned goods open on the street or car in winter, it quickly spoils in summer, which causes sickness.”

She said that the homeless usually try to keep moving during the day so as not to be conspicuous. “They tend to have cheap thin-soled shoes or sometimes no shoes. They come in with lots of blisters.”

But despite such obstacles, many of the homeless say they prefer hot weather to cold because they find it easier to get cooler than to get warmer.

Chauncey Bondon, 36, was in the popular pose of the day--stretched out on the downtown City Hall lawn like a dead man. He had his pant legs rolled up, shoes and shirt off, and was listening to a Dodger baseball game. He said he takes to the street during the day because it is cooler than his cheap hotel room without air-conditioning and there is nowhere else to go. “When it’s cold, there are shelters, but when it’s hot, you are on your own.

“I did do something real helpful. I had an Afro out to here” he said, gesturing at his hair in a wide arc. “But yesterday I got it all cut off.”

Battling the Swelters

Nearby at the Union Rescue Mission on Main Street, about 100 men gathered in various angles of repose, some strategically placing themselves under the large ceiling fans twirling far above on the ceilings. Some were reading Bibles and old newspapers, but most were preoccupied in the rather hopeless task of battling the midday heat.

Gary (Hawk) Lewis, 33, said: “I come from New Orleans where it’s worse than this in the summer. But this be hot too. The only place you can be cool is under the freeway overpass.” Lewis said he is in a drug rehabilitation program and spends most of his time at the mission now. “It’s better. I just had my second cool shower of the day, and I’ll probably get to have a couple more.”

Mike Dunn, 38, was snoozing in a chair in the day room. His shirt was unbuttoned, his shoes were off and sweat was making rivulets down his face. Asked if he preferred his weather hot or cold, he answered with a big grin: “I like my days slightly balmy with a cool breeze.”