Phoenix homeless shelter expected to lose space as temperatures heat up

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — A Valley homeless shelter is sounding the alarm before the extreme heat sets in, reporting they’ll lose shelter space for people who have nowhere to go to stay cool.

According to Maricopa County’s preliminary heat report from 2024, people experiencing homelessness made up the largest proportion of heat-related deaths in 2024 compared to any other living situation.

Amy Schwabenlender is the CEO of Keys To Change, an organization that collaborates with several nonprofits that house the homeless community during the hottest time of year. It serves as a safe haven, but Schwabenlender said they’ll lose space on June 1, around the time when extreme temperatures peak.

She said they used pandemic-era federal dollars from the American Rescue Plan Act to help the growing homeless population in Maricopa County. However, now that’s going away, they’ll lose 110 spaces.

“Our concern is that heat is a deadly situation and we are losing this capacity,” said Schwabenlender. “It’s really a dire situation, really for our community because homelessness affects everybody.”

Schwabenlender says the organization is having issues with their air conditioning, which they are looking to get repaired before summertime. Click or tap here if you want to help Keys To Change.

The Maricopa County Association of Governments will release a map for their heat relief network on May 1. You can see the map by clicking or tapping here.

See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it.

Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.

Copyright 2025 KTVK/KPHO. All rights reserved.