Arizona: The realities of living in a homeless encampment during the hottest July on record

Stefon James Dewitt Livengood was laid out for days inside his makeshift dwelling in Phoenix, Arizona, struggling to breath, nauseous and vomiting.

Every day this month, temperatures have soared past 43.3 degrees Celsius.

Livengood said he stopped briefly at a free clinic that took his blood pressure and declared it acceptable. But he received no other medical help for his apparent heat exhaustion, or for the peeling skin on his arms he believes was caused by sun exposure. 

He is careful when he walks through the sprawling tent city, cognizant that if he falls, the simmering black asphalt could seriously burn his skin.

“If you’re going outside, let somebody know where you’re going so you can be tracked so you don’t pass out out there,” he said. 

“If you fall out in the heat, you don’t want a third degree burn from the ground.”

Homeless people are among those most likely to die in the extreme heat in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area. 

The city is seeing its longest run of consecutive days of 43.3 Celsius ever recorded, clocking 28 in a row as of Thursday, even as the first monsoon storm of the season brought some overnight relief.

“It has been a scary situation this year and it's especially scary for our homeless population,” said Dr. Geoff Comp, an emergency room physician for Valleywise Health in central Phoenix.

“They have a more constant exposure to the heat than most of us.”

People living outside are also vulnerable to surface burns from contact with hot metal, concrete or asphalt.

Surgeons at the Arizona Burn Center–Valleywise Health recently warned about burns caused by walking, sitting or falling on outside surfaces reaching up to 82.2 degrees Celsius.

The burn centre last year saw 85 people admitted with heat-related surface