National Weather Service climate projections from March show Portland’s summer will likely be hotter and drier than average.
The news comes at a time when government bodies around the Portland area are making significant cuts to some homeless services such as shelters, leaving people living outside with less support to make it through this summer. Sweeps have also been increasing — as have the number of people living unsheltered.
The city and Multnomah County both said they will work to meet homeless Portlanders’ needs this summer despite service cuts.
Brief respite
On a cold morning in April, homeless Portlanders told Street Roots they were mostly ready for summer after this year’s brutal winter. But Michelle, 50, said her relief would be short-lived.
“There’s been some really cold nights,” she said, “but, on the other hand, little bit of fear that it’s going to be too hot.”
She said her family uses damp towels to fight off overheating when it’s hot, but nothing beats cooling centers.
“When you walk in from the hot day, it’s amazing, like walking into heaven,” she said. “Everybody’s nice there too. And there’s tons of food for us, and we can just chill out.”
Colton Smith is the clinical care director at Portland Street Medicine, which provides free medical care to people experiencing homelessness where they’re at.
He said heat worsens issues that are almost impossible to avoid when living on the street, such as lack of sleep or nutrition — and that has other impacts.
“People living outside are so used to being so uncomfortable so often,” he said. “It oftentimes doesn’t register, things that would make people who live inside uncomfortable enough to think ‘There’s a problem here.’”
Smith, who has worked in healthcare for about 25 years, said he’s particularly worried because sweeps have increased in the past year under Mayor Keith Wilson.
He said the increasing sweeps have broken up communities, and may also lead people to skip desperately needed care this summer. Without friends to look after their things, people fear they’ll lose their remaining possessions if they leave their tents unattended.
“There was a really robust information network in the houseless community when the communities were intact,” Smith said. “But that has sort of been disrupted in recent months, which worries me about weather events coming up.”
That’s just one of the ways sweeps threaten homeless Portlanders’ lives.
The deadly impacts of heat
Heat is the most deadly natural disaster by a long shot, killing more people than hurricanes, floods, tornados and winter weather, NWS data shows.
Smith said while official cause of death rulings often say something relating to heart or kidney issues led to the death, those issues can become deadly in the heat.
“It’s hard to say exactly how many people would be here if it hadn’t been a real hot day and their pre-existing conditions hadn’t been exacerbated,” he added.
A spokesperson for Multnomah County Health Department said the county experienced 14 heat-associated deaths during the 2022-2024 summers. One of those people was homeless at their time of death.
The county said that those 14 people were mostly single men, older than 60, with underlying medical conditions.
Older adults are the fastest growing group among people who are homeless.
And they make up a disproportionate percentage of Portland’s homeless population, said Paula Carder. She’s the director of PSU’s Institute on Aging, and a co-founder of the university’s Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative.
Carder said issues seniors often experience — hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, lung disorders, mobility limitations and higher risk of dehydration — increase the stakes of the barriers to care homeless people face. And that leaves older homeless people in a particularly dangerous situation.
During summer 2024, about 8% of emergency room and urgent care records for heat-related illness visits indicated the patient was experiencing homelessness, the county said.
A hot, smoky summer?
David Bishop is a meteorologist with the NWS’ Portland office.
“Our average maximum temperature for the month of July is around 81.9 degrees,” he said. “August is about 82.3.”
NWS models show this year is likely to be hotter still, with less rain than the average year. Alongside the Pacific Northwest’s record-breaking snowfall deficits, that creates a recipe for wildfires. Though Bishop cautioned low humidity and high wind are also generally needed for fires to grow severe.
But homeless Portlanders have already grown familiar with wildfires, and the significant impacts caused by smoke.
In 2020, Oregon experienced the most destructive wildfires in its history, burning more than one million acres and blanketing the region in thick smoke for days. At one point, Portland had the worst air quality on earth.
A joint Portland State University-Street Roots survey of homeless Portlanders about that smoke found half of respondents said it impacted their health, 37% reported difficulty breathing and 15% went to the hospital.
Seventy-five percent did not receive any information about support available during the wildfire event, and 69% did not receive any help during the wildfire event.
Research from California has found wildfire smoke increased respiratory disease-related emergency department visits by more than one-quarter. And the CDC found similar impacts from wildfire smoke on the East Coast in 2023.
Exposure to small particulate matter in smoke also increases the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, heart attacks and stroke — all of which increase the risk of heat-related deaths.
Shelter closures
Kathleen Conte is a professor at PSU and OHSU’s joint school of public health. She said closures of shelters and other services homeless people use to stay healthy could have big impacts this summer.
“They are providing resources in the context of heat respite, a chance to get in from the elements,” she said. “So if there are reduced opportunities to do that, then that’s certainly a problem.”
And the Portland area has seen a wave of shelter closures in recent months as the region faces budget shortfalls and President Donald Trump guts funding for homelessness solutions that don’t align with his political views.
The full extent of local service cuts is not clear right now as governments and organizations shuffle money around, and additional cuts may not have been announced yet.
Bishop, of the NWS’ Portland office, said sleeping outside on summer nights can prime the body for heat exhaustion and stroke the next day.
“If you don’t cool off during (the) night,” he said, “if your overnight lows are in like the 60s, or even higher than that, into the 70s, then that can compound the heat exposure, because you’re already starting off at a much higher temperature than you would be if there was reasonable cooling overnight.”
Government response
A spokesperson for the city of Portland did not directly answer if there will be the same amount of cooling options this year.
“Since taking office, Mayor Wilson has significantly expanded emergency shelter capacity and day center availability across Portland, including facilities that can flex up during severe weather events,” Cody Bowman, a spokesperson for the city, wrote in a statement.
Bowman also said the city only planned to reduce its shelter beds by about two dozen this year, adding Multnomah County “has recently closed more than 200 beds and has additional closures planned, which will have broader regional impacts.”
He said the city will work to offer a variety of cooling options this summer, and will work with the county to make sure resources are put where they’re needed.
A spokesperson for the county said it’s already gearing up for the summer.
“In the lead-up to hot weather events, the Homeless Services Department also works with street outreach teams to begin sharing information on potential health risks before they arise,” Julia Comnes, a spokesperson for the county, wrote in a statement.
Comnes said the county’s planned shelter cuts are for 24/7, year-round shelters, and no final decisions will be made until the county’s budget is adopted in June. She added that if there are fewer shelters, the county anticipates more people will need to use cooling shelters, and the county is considering that in seasonal preparations.
Comnes highlighted public libraries as a great option for people looking to stay cool this summer. And for people looking to help others stay cool, the county lists cooling center volunteer trainings at multco.us/info/volunteer-county-emergency-shelter.
Symptoms to watch out for
“Some studies have shown that people don’t take heat-related symptoms as seriously, so they may delay seeking care,” PSU’s Conte said.
Bishop said knowing the signs of heat exhaustion and stroke is crucial.
“So for heat exhaustion, you’ve got stuff like dizziness, thirst, heavy sweating, nausea and just general weakness,” he said.
Also, skin with goose bumps when in the heat, weak or rapid pulse, muscle cramps and headaches. Heatstroke, which is more serious, often comes with the same symptoms as well as changes in mental state or behaviors.
Smith spent last summer out on the street treating people, and said those issues were a “daily occurrence” on days that were 90 degrees or more.
“On those days where it was over 100, I mean, people were in rough shape. Even in the shade, there was just no respite,” he said. “I don’t have high hopes for this summer, so we’re doing what we can do to try and get ahead of it — prevention, rather than reaction.”
In the meantime, homeless Portlanders like Alex, 33, are gearing up for another summer.
“You just make sure that you have a lot of sports-style clothing,” he said. “Just make sure to carry a gallon of water around and always hydrate. Always hydrate. That’s just my main tip.”
This article appears in April 8, 2026.
