March 28, 2024

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As deadly heat waves spread, access to air conditioning becomes a lifesaving question

The sun came blazing through the sliding glass door in Jollene Brown’s cramped studio apartment, a converted storage unit in southeast Portland, Oregon. As the heat started rising in late June — hotter than she could ever remember — her son, Shane Brown, hung a blanket over the glass to help block the rays, to little effect.

The $750-a-month apartment didn’t come with air conditioning, and the old floor unit that she and her son had scraped the money together to buy wasn’t working. When her son suggested getting a new one, she waved the idea away. “We’ll see,” she