Environmental (IN)justice in Sacramento
TL;DR: In our last post we discussed what defines environmental justice. This week we’re going to talk about environmental injustice and how it manifests. We’re looking into the impact of these injustices on our most marginalized community members, and more specifically, our unhoused neighbors.
Marginalized communities are the most impacted by, and suffer the most severe consequences from, climate change, environmental injustice, and environmental racism.
Urban heat islands, redlining, and community health
As a reminder, an “urban heat island” refers to the phenomenon where built environments in urban areas trap heat in their infrastructure, increasing the temperature of the area and decreasing its ability to cool down.
Densely populated urban areas experience the most significant temperature increases, as compared to surrounding areas, due to this effect. Green spaces and tree canopies can help counter the urban heat island effect - neighborhoods in cities with fewer green spaces and canopies have the most elevated temperatures. Communities most impacted by historic disadvantages, lack of investment, and discrimination are the most likely to exist in urban heat islands, and some of the least likely to have adequate green spaces & canopy cover.
Redlining, the racially discriminatory practice of refusing access to credit and financial services to neighborhoods based on peoples’ racial and/or ethnic identity, directly contributes to these neighborhoods & communities continuing to bear the disproportionate burden of urban heat islands. Race covenants served to enforce racial segregation between neighborhoods.
Race covenants are defined as:
Racial covenants served as legally-enforceable contracts. They stipulated that the property had to remain in the hands of White people and they ran with the land, which meant that it could be enforced in perpetuity
Redlining and race covenants are both policy decisions that create segregated marginalized, low-income communities that are not invested in - these communities do not have access to the infrastructure & supports that would help protect them against the impacts of extreme weather patterns. Instead, they are the most vulnerable to suffering from the consequences of climate change and environmental injustice, and have the most limited survival resources.
...[o]ne study found that across more than 100 US cities, land surface temperatures in previously redlined areas are approximately 2.6°C warmer than in non-redlined areas within the same city. This difference can, in part, be explained by formerly redlined areas having significantly less tree cover than other urban areas - Urban Heat Islands 101
Areas of Sacramento County directly impacted by redlining and race covenants include: North Highlands, Oak Park and South Sacramento. The use of race covenants was banned in 1948, but were still used by local developers until 1960. Even after these practices were officially banned, disparities and lack of investment continue to plague marginalized regions of Sacramento, particularly North and South Sac. One way the ongoing legacy of redlining and race covenants can be seen is in both the proliferation of urban heat islands, and the limited access to green spaces and canopy cover.
Tree canopy is also significantly associated with lower rates of asthma, and will encourage walking and cycling in the community, cutting down on pollution and harm from cars, especially in heavily trafficked areas. South Sacramento is rated among the highest 10% of asthma emergency visits in the state.
[s]tudies have found a noteworthy relationship between the location of redlined communities, their exposure to extreme heat, and the rate of hospital visits for asthma that is likely due to poorer air quality. The redlined neighborhoods were targeted for ‘urban renewal’ projects in the 1950s, which often meant a highway system would be built on top of it, or through it. Sacramento’s network of busy elevated freeways is now the conduit for ozone and particle pollution - Legacy Of Racist ‘redlining’ Lingers In Sacramento Neighborhoods. How This Costs The City
If you're curious to learn more, this video from Strong SacTown visually shows the destruction ("renewal") of redlined neighborhoods in Sacramento during the 50s & 60s, and the construction of freeways, parking lots, and offices on top of where communities used to exist.
We can see that policies like redlining and race covenants rip communities apart and leave lasting legacies of disinvestment and marginalization in their wake, but they also have (to name a few) lasting detrimental effects on the health, well being, and safety of the people most impacted them. From the examples named above, we can see how these policies impact the built environment and climate of neighborhoods, and how the consequences of climate change further exacerbate the inequities faced by folks living in them.
These marginalizations compound upon themselves, leaving communities that have historically experienced oppression and neglect to bear, not only those impacts, but also the disproportionate burden of climate change. They are the people most harmed by our government’s total lack of desire to meaningfully address climate change, and by government policies and decision-making that worsen the effects of both climate change and environmental injustice.
How climate change and environmental injustice impacts our unhoused neighbors
Unhoused folks are the most vulnerable to, and some of the most likely to experience, the consequences of extreme weather changes. Climate change also results in more people being put out onto the street, as communities are destroyed by events like floods and wildfires. The communities hardest hit are also likely to be low-income and home to BIPOC - communities that typically have less access to support and resources.
There are many, MANY ways in which people living outside are impacted by the climate and environment, most caused by policy decisions that do not prioritize their health, or the health of any underserved communities.
For this blog post we’re looking at one impact in particular: HEAT. According to climate scientists, extreme heat is the deadliest symptom of climate change.
"Nikki Buckles, a former carpenter, sits with his dog Opium on Tuesday near an air conditioner he hooked up to a generator to stay cool in a tent and wooden makeshift shelter. He was worried about leaving his possessions to go to a cooling center but said he might go if he felt the dog is in danger from the heat." Photo & caption by Renée C. Byer, pulled from: Sleepless nights, blazing tents: Sacramento heat wave tests limits of those without AC
During times of elevated temperatures, folks living outside - without air conditioning, regular access to water, or consistent (if any) safe places to cool down - are at extreme risk for suffering from heat-related health problems, including heat stroke. Unhoused folks experience disproportionate levels of physical and mental disabilities compared to folks with shelter, and extreme heat severely worsens the health impact of physical and mental disabilities. This adds yet more harm, danger, and trauma to the lives of folks living outside.
Excessive heat compounds this population’s [the unhoused] health issues leading to complications that can be incredibly fatal. According to the World Health Organization, under extreme heat the body’s inability to regulate internal temperature and eliminate heat increases the risk of heat exhaustion and heatstroke. Extreme heat paired with illicit drug use and mental health conditions, together or separately, are also extremely dangerous, if not deadly, conditions for the homeless - Extreme Heat Adds to the Health Challenges of Unhoused People in California's Inland Empire
High temperatures can be deadly, triggering heat strokes and heart attacks, and exacerbating asthma, diabetes, kidney failure and other illnesses, even some infectious diseases…In California, extreme heat contributed to more than 5,000 hospitalizations and almost 10,600 emergency department visits over the past decade — and the health effects “fall disproportionately on already overburdened” Black people, Latinos and Native Americans, according to a recent state report - More extreme heat + more people = danger in these California cities. ‘Will it get as hot as Death Valley?’
As just one example of the impact extreme heat can have on unhoused folks, consider the interaction between heat and medication. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) there are 3 main ways that heat impacts medication: 1) by interfering with the body’s ability to regulate its temperature and water, 2) degrading or damaging medications, and 3) increasing skin sensitivity to the sun.
In the heat, inhalers may burst, and insulin may be less effective. Remember the elevated rates of asthma in marginalized and redlined communities, and the fact that heat itself can exacerbate both asthma and diabetes.
The CDC recommends that clinicians work with their patients to potentially adjust medications according to heat exposure, make sure their patients stay hydrated, create a clear list of symptoms so the patient can know when to seek help, and identify a point of contact for their patients. How many unhoused folks have a clinician they can check in with regularly to manage their medication, let alone understand how to manage medication during a heat wave?
The following graph is pulled from the 2019 Health Conditions Among Unsheltered Adults in the U.S Policy Brief, from the California Policy Lab. It clearly shows the disproportionate rates of disabilities that unhoused folks live with, without the safety of shelter, and often while being denied their basic human rights. These circumstances will only worsen health outcomes, and increase risk of death.
As discussed above, urban heat islands are often found in low-income and/or redlined areas. This is certainly true in Sacramento, with downtown, West Sacramento, North Natomas and neighborhoods of South Sacramento being pockets of extreme heat. People living in heat islands experience the impact of climate change and extreme heat in a much more dangerous way than people outside of them, and that danger is even more ever-present in unhoused communities.
...is our government doing anything to help?
In July of 2024, Sacramento County stopped delivering water to homeless encampments. The County had been delivering about 70% of the water to city encampments. Sacramento City continued water delivery only to Camp Resolution...which ended when City swept the the camp on August 26th, 2024. If you need evidence of the Sacramento City government's disregard for the lives and safety of our unhoused neighbors, look no further.
County Spokesperson Janna Haynes said, when asked about the County's decision to stop delivering water to encampments:
The COVID-19 pandemic is over and water delivery is now the responsibility of each jurisdiction as part of street management and outreach - Sacramento County stops delivering water to homeless as heat wave starts. Here’s why
Quick fact check (not that the County is big on facts), according to the CDC, as of 9/6/24:
COVID-19 activity remains elevated nationally, but there are continued signs of decline in many areas. COVID-19 test positivity, emergency department visits, and rates of COVID-19–associated hospitalizations remain elevated, particularly among adults 65+ and children under 2 years
According to County Spokesperson Kim Nava, the County supervisors “were aware that the ARPA funding for those services [water delivery to encampments] was ending…” The County chose to do nothing.
While cooling centers are important, and it is good when the city and county open them, there are not enough spaces for everyone who could benefit from using them, and they’re often inaccessible for other reasons as well. People living outside may not know they exist or how to access them, there may not be adequate transportation to get to them, the centers may not allow pets, and crucially, people have to leave behind their shelter and belongings to travel to these centers. Cooling centers are not a panacea for folks living outside in extreme heat. At best they are a small and non-secure, extremely temporary, band aid. Even then, they are only helpful for some.
Since July 1st, 2024, at least two unhoused people in Sacramento have died due to heat related symptoms.
Again, is our government doing anything to help?
Sacramento County has a draft plan for addressing extreme heat, but this plan is part of the County’s Climate Action Plan, something which - as of this publication - also only exists as a draft.
In 2023, 350 Sacramento released a Climate Report Card for the City of Sacramento evaluating City on Equity, Foundational Principles, Built Environment, Mobility, and Community Health and Resiliency.
Overall, the City got a grade of D+.
For this write-up, we are highlighting some of areas of improvement that 350 Sac identified regarding the City’s Community Health and Resiliency:
The City has not offered sufficient resources to give unhoused residents respite from extreme heat or extreme cold.
The City lacks clear and detailed climate adaptation and preparedness plans that identify specific goals, deadlines, or funding sources.
We recommend reading the full report card for a truly insightful and thorough look at what the City is doing well in regard to climate, and, what they are doing badly (emphasis on badly).
Our local government has a long way to go in regard to taking meaningful steps to address climate change and environmental injustice. The situation is dire for our low-income and marginalized communities, and even more so for our unhoused neighbors.
There are community organizations and groups that operate outside of our government where you can care for your neighbors and community, as well as groups that advocate for policy changes within our local government. Some of these orgs are listed (not a comprehensive list) below, they don't all have the same focus areas or tactics, but they are all made up of people working to create a community where everyone can thrive.
Regarding our local government: keep an eye out for City and County meetings, activities, and conversations around climate and their implementation (or lack thereof) of policies that are meant to make our communities healthier and more resilient. On the other hand, also keep an eye out for City and County meetings, activities, and conversations that impede or worsen our community’s ability to survive our changing climate and extreme weather patterns.
Regarding engaging in community care…go for it! Whether it’s individually, collectively, part of a formal group or not, caring for the community can look so many different ways! What’s important is finding something that works for you in a manageable and sustainable way, and something that can bring you and your community joy. Remember that many hands make light work!
Some orgs working to care and provide for our community:
Anti Police-Terror Project, Sacramento chapter; @aptpsac
Community Movement Builders (CMB) Neighbor Program; @cmb.neighborprogram
Democratic Socialists of America, Sacramento Chapter; @sac_dsa
Mobilize for Mental Health; @mobilize4mentalhealth
Sunrise Movement, Sacramento Chapter; @sunrisemvmtsac
The Awkward Gardner (TAG) Community Table; @tagcommunitytable
Third Act, Sacramento Chapter; @thirdactsac
Tortuguita Community Pantry; @tortuguitacommunitypantry
