Community Perspectives: Extreme Heat Challenges and Solutions in Chicago, Illinois

Extreme heat events disproportionately impact low-income individuals and households that have higher rates of exposure to heat. Chicago’s low-income communities are at particular risk from heat since research shows that places with historically colder climates like Chicago face greater health risks from rising temperatures. Chicago’s prevalence of central air conditioning is much lower than the national rate, their residential buildings were designed to retain heat, and the population is less acclimatized and prepared for extreme heat. To better understand how extreme heat impacts communities, Elevate partnered with the Chicago Bungalow Association and Tonika Lewis Johnson who lead UnBlocked Englewood, a whole block approach to home retrofits in a community that has been historically marginalized and is classified as an environmental justice community. In Summer 2024, Elevate interviewed residents of UnBlocked Englewood and identified key concerns and challenges related to extreme heat.

In this report, we discuss results from interviews with community members, and these qualitative results include heat perceptions and beliefs, heat-health relationships, and capacities to respond to increasingly high temperatures. We also uplift and highlight community members’ immediate and long-term solutions and ideas for mitigating and responding to extreme heat. To conclude, we discuss the implications of these findings for building resilience and managing heat risk in Chicago.

Learn more

Visit ElevateNP.org/Research-and-Innovation to learn more about our Research and Innovation projects and visit Chicagobungalow.org/unblocked to learn more about UnBlocked Englewood.