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As climate change brings extreme heat to Lane County, leaders are rethinking how they respond. The challenge is a public health dilemma, affecting everyone from renters without air conditioning to people without shelter. It’s a reality policy leaders and emergency managers recognize — but one they’re struggling to address without stable funding.
The early June heat wave that hit Eugene and Springfield is setting an unsettling tone for what’s expected to be a dangerously hot summer.
For years, public health and emergency managers have relied on cooling spaces — public buildings that open their doors when temperatures hit 90 degrees — to offer short-term relief. But as heat waves become more frequent and severe, local leaders are beginning to shift their focus toward long-term answers that better protect vulnerable communities.
“This weekend’s record-breaking heat in Eugene is a stark reminder that the climate crisis is here, and it’s hitting Lane County hard. We need real solutions that protect those hit first and worst by climate change,” said Joel Iboa, founding executive director of the Oregon Just Transition Alliance, a group dedicated to supporting communities on the front lines of climate change.
Among those hit hardest are residents without air conditioning or cooling equipment at home, which makes up 58% of Lane County vulnerable households, according to a survey by the Oregon Department of Energy.
Vulnerability reflects a range of factors, including heat exposure, socioeconomic status, age, health conditions, and housing quality — all of which affect a community’s ability to prepare for and withstand rising temperatures. The department’s heat vulnerability index gives Lane County a score indicating it faces challenges in helping its population cope with extreme heat.
“Most folks who die from heat-related incidents do so when they’re living alone without air conditioning,” said Ben Brint, senior climate program director at the Oregon Environmental Council. “So that’s why it’s so important for us to recognize that the climate emergency isn’t some abstract thing.”
On the heels of the spring heat — and with fewer than 20 days left in the legislative session — Brint and Iboa are backing an energy affordability and resilience package that helps meet people where they are: inside their homes. A key part of that effort is expanding access to heat pumps, an energy-efficient and cost-effective technology that provides both cooling and heating.
This technology has been made more accessible through the state’s Community Heat Pump Deployment Program, which unlike many weatherization efforts limited to homeowners also includes renters.
The program distributes funds to nonprofits like Earth Advantage, which then partner with utilities like Eugene Water and Electric Board to install heat pumps, but it has already reached capacity for new participants.
In 2025, EWEB received $47,000 through the program, enough to fund just six or seven projects. Those funds have already been exhausted. According to the Oregon Just Transition Alliance and the Energy Justice Policy Council, state budget writers have not indicated whether the program will be replenished over the next two years. In the meantime, EWEB continues to offer its own rebate and loan program for customers seeking heat pumps.
With federal funding in flux, local governments have to be empowered to take action, even within constraints, Brint said, because “lives are on the line.”
That reality isn’t lost on Lane County Public Health leaders, who say they’re trying to find solutions amid a chaotic landscape marked by disappearing grant funding.
To better prepare for residents without air conditioning — whether they live in housing without it or have no housing at all — the county had secured federal funding to create dedicated emergency shelters, places that people consistently knew they could go to.
Currently, the county contracts with organizations like St. Vincent de Paul to operate the Egan Warming Center, a program in recent years used during freezing temperatures but now being adapted for extreme heat. Shelters like this open for 24-hour protection during extreme heat events or when heat and wildfire smoke combine — something traditional cooling spaces don’t provide.
In partnership with United Way, the county planned to use its $19.5 million grant to establish “community resilience hubs” spanning from Florence to Oakridge. But in May, the Environmental Protection Agency notified Lane County that it had terminated the funding.
“It was a very significant blow to all the great organizations that had made really great plans for building resilience and emergency preparedness in communities,” said Jocelyn Warren, public health manager for Lane County, during her department’s monthly public-facing committee Monday — during the thick of a heat advisory from the National Weather Service.
“Rather than seeking services in the urban core, being able to provide some relief in communities was going to be a terrific advantage.”
In the interim, Warren and other local leaders continue to point people to cooling spaces for safety as well as offering tips for managing heat stress.
Lane County updates cooling spaces they work with each year. The information in the map and below was last updated by county administrators in May. See a full list here.
