Public health commissioners eye heat resistance steps for city budget requests

Public health proponents for the city and Travis County appear ready to push for more heat mitigation resources in the next city budget, with a recent playbook from the Office of Resilience likely to help prioritize those financial requests.

At last week’s meeting of the Austin/Travis County Public Health Commission, members heard a presentation about the city’s Heat Resilience Playbook, which was created after years of public feedback on the impacts of rising temperatures, including more days in excess of 100 degrees.

Marc Coudert, climate resilience and adaptation manager for the Office of Resilience, reviewed the 56 actions across all city departments that have been identified as possible responses to extreme heat. Because the playbook differs from a forward-looking plan, Coudert advised commissioners that the document is more of a summary of current tactics rather than a strategy that could anticipate needs in the coming years.

The playbook was prompted by a clear trend of rising temperatures in Austin. In 2023, the city experienced over 80 days of 100-degree heat, with nearly half of those days exceeding 105 degrees. The county’s Eastern Crescent, which includes neighborhoods with the highest social vulnerability, was identified as particularly affected by heat, as these areas often lack access to air conditioning, tree cover and other cooling resources.

Key measures include expanding weatherization programs to improve energy efficiency in homes, particularly for vulnerable populations, and increasing access to indoor cooling centers at libraries and recreation facilities.

The Parks and Recreation Department is tasked with enhancing outdoor spaces through tree planting, shaded areas and improved access to water features, while Austin Energy works on promoting energy-efficient air conditioning systems and exploring renewable energy solutions for resilience hubs.

The city also aims to strengthen community outreach, with Austin Public Health leading efforts to communicate heat risks and provide support to at-risk groups, including people experiencing homelessness. These actions are complemented by long-term strategies such as integrating heat resilience into building codes, achieving a 50 percent tree canopy goal by 2050, and fortifying public infrastructure to withstand higher temperatures.

Commissioner Natalie Poindexter was one of several members who expressed interest in identifying steps in the playbook that would benefit from more financial support in the next city budget.

“I’m very curious of how we as a commission can support, with our community health workers that are engaged both with the city of Austin as well as Central Health and (the University of Texas), having those community health workers as a whole being those advocates that are boots on the ground, having these conversations,” she said. “Who can we tap into and tag to say, this is a great thing for you all to come together and have a conversation about. Budget season is coming up. … What can we do to support as this commission to move some sort of budget recommendation to the forefront of everybody’s mind?”

The commission didn’t take a vote to prioritize any specific steps in the playbook for budget requests, but there was discussion of bringing the item back in a future meeting. Coudert said there is widespread support for budget conversations among the many city departments attached to climate issues, with the Joint Sustainability Committee also recently discussing the playbook and its role in city operations.

“The good news is that most all departments understand that heat is impacting our community members. It’s impacting their staff, their assets and operations,” he said. “So there is a lot of support internally to do this.”

Photo by RobertKixmiller, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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