High heat making living rough unbearable as outreach workers race to hand out water

Hot, sticky and heavy. 

That's how Jessica Rowe, who lives outside in one of London's homeless encampments, describes life without a place to go to cool off. 

"More water is needed. We only get what we can get, what's given to us. We deal with what we have," she said. "This is just the beginning." 

Like others who spoke to CBC News, Rowe didn't get much sleep the last two nights as temperatures peaked at 35 degrees Celsius during the day and fell to a hot 27 degrees Celsius at night. 

"You can't get much relief," Rowe said. "Being outside sometimes you get the wind and the breeze, but it's actually really rough. Hot, hot, hot and sticky. Heavy. There's a heaviness in the air." 

More people have been showing up at 602 Queens Ave., where London Cares operates a drop-in centre and the Sisters of St. Joseph serve meals.

"We've seen an increase in calls for people needing water. It's like a sauna when you open the door to go outside," said Lise Goupil, London Cares' outreach coordinator. 

While city and health officials tell people about cooling centres such as libraries and community centres, some Londoners are banned from those locations because of past behavioural issues, Goupil said. "We have people who are restricted from services or folks with pets can't bring them in," she said. "We've seen an increase in folks coming into our space to cool off." 

City of London outreach teams are performing wellness checks and giving out extra water, said Debbie Kramers, the manager of London's coordinated informed response. 

Those who want to donate to people in the encampment must do so by walking into the park, not driving down the Thames Valley Parkway. 

"We have secured the already-existing gate at Watson Park to deter people driving through the park," Kramer said.

"This is in response to concerns raised by nearby residents of high volume of vehicular traffic driving in and out of the park, especially late at night and into the early morning hours. We have also heard complaints from individuals living in encampments that vehicular traffic has increased, some of which is at high speeds, which is a major safety risk."

Structures aren't allowed in the encampment and the city recently re-installed portable toilets because hiring a biohazard cleanup company to get rid of human waste was proving too expensive.  

Kay Krohl also didn't sleep because of the heat. Her trick, she said, is to try to move as little as possible to avoid getting any hotter than she already is.

"I have a dog but it's too hot to take him for walks," she said. "I wish people knew just how hard it actually is to live down here. We're not homeless because we choose to be. We're homeless because a situation put us here. A lot of these people are not on the street because they want to be but because they have no other choice." 

Asked what she needs to survive the heat, Krohl said: "Water, food, and shade." 

Goupil and Scott Courtice, who runs the Intercommunity Health Centre, said they haven't seen an increase in people coming in with heat-related illnesses, but more people looking to come in cooler, air-conditioned spaces. 

"We've increased the amount of water we're  handing out and stocked up on freezies to help people stay cool. Our team even made an extra run to the grocery store this morning to pick up more water and supplies," Courtice said.