The increased frequency and severity of recent wildfire smoke events has had a major impact on those with asthma, severely limiting their activities and increasing the risk of asthma exacerbations, emergency department visits, and hospitalizations. In response, RAMP has created a range of tools to help support people with asthma prepare for and limit the impact of wildfires smoke events.
At the same time, asthma home visitors and tenants’ rights partners working on healthy and stable housing began telling us about another layer to the challenge. They pointed out that California does not have a statewide standard for cooling in homes, so many households, and particularly renters, do not have air conditioning or other cooling systems in place. As a result, when wildfire smoke events coincide with extreme heat (as they commonly do), they see families with inadequate cooling in their homes struggle with the dilemma of keeping windows closed to prevent smoke intrusion or opening them to cool their home. This led two of our key networks, Community Action to Fight Asthma (CAFA) and the California Healthy Housing Coalition (CHHC), to elevate the issue of extreme heat as a priority.
In response, RAMP has partnered with Western Center on Law and Poverty, California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, Leadership Counsel, and Inner City Law Center to advocate for a statewide cooling standard for homes similar to the existing “adequate heating” requirement. While a 2022 bill, AB 2597, stalled in the legislature, our coalition was able to secure funding in the state budget for the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) to determine a safe maximum indoor temperature and engage stakeholders in the development of policy recommendations to be delivered to the legislature by January 1, 2025 (AB 209). HCD released a draft report outlining their findings and proposed recommendations for public comment in June 2024. With key partners, we helped draft and submit a comment letter with over 40 organizations signing on. The Department will review comments, make edits, and then move their recommendations through internal review processes in order to provide them to the legislature at the end of the year.
We plan to continue to work with our asthma, healthy housing, and tenants’ rights partners to leverage HCD’s recommendations to shape and advance policies to address extreme heat in rental housing in 2025.
