As climate change worsens, extreme weather events are becoming more common and more intense, from heat waves to floods to freak storms. For the most part, people can escape these events by going inside. But for the unhoused, things are obviously not so easy. For people without housing, they are the most vulnerable to dramatic shifts in climate, as they cannot easily cool off during a heat wave, warm up when it is below freezing or protect themselves from elements like fire, wind, rain and snow.
Additionally, as millions more become climate refugees thanks to their homes being wiped out by fires or floods, the number of unhoused people will significantly increase. A report from UNICEF released last year found that 43 million children have been displaced by climate disasters in just a five year period while another report released in January from the anti-homelessness nonprofit Community Solutions sheds light on how the climate change impact on homelessness is not a looming threat; it is a present crisis, one that continues to get worse.
