Denver Residents Experiences with High Heat🔥

Denver residents' responses to the question “Do you have air conditioning in your home?”

Between May and July of this year, Open Answer Mobilize canvassers surveyed over 1,000 Denver residents about their experiences with high heat. This is our second time conducting a survey like this.

While the majority of respondents reported having air conditioning, at least 1 in 6 only have access to a window unit(s). This includes one man who described having two window units but “we cannot have them on at the same time because the electrical will shut off.” Many respondents who do not have air conditioning described “opening [their] windows” as one of their main cooling methods, however only 41% of whom knew how to check their air quality. Given that this survey was conducted in some of the most polluted zip codes in Denver (and the country)

The impact of this lack of access to cooling in Denver's hottest neighborhoods is felt by residents through their self-reported heat-related medical complications including difficulty breathing and sleeping, asthma, COPD, dizziness, nausea, and 11 participants who reported experiencing heat stroke.