Homeless Texans left with few places to cool off during record heat

Michelle Smith, outreach and engagement manager at The Bridge Homeless Recovery Center, hands a hygiene kit to a man sleeping outside of the Dallas Public Library on July 21. Extreme temperatures this year have increased health hazards for people experiencing homelessness, who have few options to escape the heat. (Credit: Emil Lippe for The Texas Tribune)

DALLAS — By 5:51 a.m. on a recent Thursday morning in downtown Dallas, it was 76 degrees and getting warmer outside, and Michelle Smith, the outreach and engagement program manager for a homeless recovery center, had already prepared a cooler full of ice-cold water bottles.

“The main issue is dehydration,” Smith said of the dangers of living outdoors during the summer.