EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been updated to reflect more current information about the installation of the AC units in 2022 and to clarify other details of the program.
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – As temperatures heat up, some residents are wondering whether the City of Portland and Multnomah County are keeping good on their promise to provide air conditioners to low-income folks.
In 2022, Portland City Council approved a grant using taxpayer money to give out 15,000 heat pumps and air conditioning units to people who live in high-risk areas over five years.
Magan Reed with the Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability told KOIN 6 News the “units are distributed to Portlanders with the greatest heat-related risk, not by geography.”
The grant, which uses the non-profit Earth Advantage as a contract administrator to purchase and manage logistics of the AC units, was a response to the 2021 heat dome that killed more than 70 people in Multnomah County.
Earth Advantage then distributes the units to Community Distribution Partners who sign people up for the program, transport and install the units into the homes of qualified recipients.
Reed told KOIN 6 News they exceeded their goal by installing more than 3100 AC units “by the end of the extreme-heat season.” She added the “program is intended to distribute 15,000 units over five years.”
KOIN 6 asked Earth Advantage how many AC units are currently available and whether they will be installed. Their response was that those who know the answers to those questions are currently on paid-time off.
Reed said this year’s installation goal will be finalized “in the next week or two.” She added Multnomah County and the State of Oregon also have programs to help with cooling needs.
Commissioner Carmen Rubio’s office oversees Portland Clean Energy fund’s heat response program and said “we need to do all we can to save lives and help those most impacted by climate change.”
“Beyond the immediate help we can give, the city’s response to the next extreme heat event must go hand-in-hand with meaningful, long-term work to decarbonize our economy, improve community resiliency and enhance our tree canopy to reduce urban heat islands,” Rubio said.
However, when KOIN 6 asked for information on the number of AC units that are available to install, the commissioner’s spokesperson directed reporters toward Earth Advantage.
Stacey lives in a low-income building operated by Home Forward at Northwest 19th Avenue and Flanders Street where someone died during the heat dome of 2021. She said her apartment still doesn’t have an AC unit.
“You can imagine, being on the 12th floor up here, how hot it gets,” Stacey said.
A sign in the lobby offers instructions on how to apply for an air conditioner, but no one in the building could say when units would be installed.
She told KOIN 6 she applied for an air conditioner last year, but didn’t get one, and filled out a new application hoping to get one in her apartment this summer. She has yet to hear back.
“It’s a health concern, and there are folks that are of the age that live in the building and can’t get in and out to get to a cooling shelter, and there are some who don’t like to go to those shelters,” Stacey said.