As heat deaths rise in US, some landlords oppose right to air conditioning

Summers in New York City are difficult for Anthony Gay and his family. A small, portable air conditioner in his bedroom is the only relief they have from soaring temperatures in their Brooklyn rental.

"The rest of the apartment is literally unbearable to walk through," said Gay, 40, whose asthmatic son struggles to breathe in the heat.

Heat can be a killer. An estimated 350 New Yorkers die prematurely each year because of extreme heat, according to the city's 2024 Heat-Related Mortality Report. Lack of access to air conditioning at home is the most important risk factor in such deaths, it said.

Yet, across the United States, about 12 per cent of homes – or about 12.7 million households – had no access to air conditioning in 2020, according to the most recent government data. Many more had some air conditioning, like Gay, but not enough to beat the heat.

Most often, homes with little or no air conditioning are occupied by low-income residents – often renters — and people of colour, a 2022 Boston University analysis of 115 US metro areas found.

That leaves them vulnerable as climate change makes heatwaves more frequent, more intense and longer lasting. Heat stress now kills more people globally each year than any other weather-related cause, according to the World Health Organisation — and many of these deaths occur indoors.

A Reuters survey of housing regulations in all 50 US states found that, while nearly half of them require landlords to maintain existing air conditioning units, none require that air-conditioning be provided. Nor do rental housing regulations describe air-conditioning as an essential service like plumbing, heat and electricity.

However, a small but growing number of US states, cities and counties have adopted legislation that impose maximum indoor temperature standards on rental housing.

In the last five years, six US localities, including New Orleans and Clark County, Nevada, have adopted such cooling laws, compared with just seven in the previous two decades, according to Reuters' review of property codes and interviews with more than a dozen policymakers and housing officials.

Now, America's two largest population centers – New York City and Los Angeles County — as well as Austin, Texas, are proposing new indoor temperature maximums for renters.

New York is proposing a cap of 78 Fahrenheit (26 degrees Celsius), and Austin is considering 85 Fahrenheit (29 C), while LA County has yet to formalize its target. New York City and Austin's proposals would require that landlords install cooling systems, given the difficulty of retrofitting old building stock to allow for better air flow and other passive measures.

The moves are setting up a showdown with powerful landlord lobbies.

Similar bills in other jurisdictions — California, Texas and Hot Springs, Arkansas — have failed in recent years after landlords' groups told policymakers they would need to raise rents to compensate for the costs of upgrading home electrical systems and adding air conditioning.

The California Apartment Association landlord lobby does not support a cooling mandate "until we can find a way to make sure that we don't knock out our electrical system and make the cost so exorbitant," said Debra Carlton, the group's executive vice president of state public affairs.

A 2022 statewide bill died following landlord push back. The California Legislature instead asked state experts to craft recommendations, which were published this June, suggesting an indoor maximum of 82 F (28 C) for newly-constructed units only.

A law in New York City might have a better chance as Mayor Eric Adams made establishing a summer indoor temperature policy by 2030 one of the goals for his administration. His office remains "committed" to the 2023 plan, a City Hall spokesperson told Reuters.

A bill proposed in July would require rental homes be kept at 78 F or lower once outside temperatures hit 82 F or above – a regular occurrence during New York summers.

If approved, the measure would impact some 750,000 renters who do not have air-conditioning, according to Council member Lincoln Restler, who sponsored the bill.

"There's an urgency to this legislation," he said. "Heat is the No. 1 climate killer, and it's only getting worse."

Restler said the bill would allow four years for landlords to make energy efficiency and electrical upgrades.

While air conditioning accounts for about four per cent of the world's total greenhouse gas emissions, which fuel climate change, research shows it also saves lives. A 2016 study estimated a 75 per cent drop in the number of US heat-related deaths on hot days during the latter half of the 20th century after AC was introduced, according to findings published in the Journal of Political Economy.

Heat-related deaths are undercounted globally, epidemiologists say. The United Nations, in a report this year, said that modelled estimates suggest that between 2000 and 2019, approximately 489,000 heat-related deaths occurred each year, with nearly half of those in Asia.

In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that heat-related deaths have been increasing, with approximately 2,302 in 2023 versus 1,602 two years previously. However, that data only includes death certificates that specifically mention heat and is regarded by many experts as a dramatic undercount.

One of the few places to track indoor and outdoor heat-related deaths is Maricopa County in Arizona, where temperatures regularly top 110 F (43 C). Despite two of its cities – Phoenix and Tempe – passing maximum indoor temperature laws, the county registered 156 indoor heat-related deaths last year, a five-fold increase over the last decade.

Although the trend is bleak, in 2023 Phoenix and Tempe fared better than cities in the county without cooling laws. Indoor deaths accounted for 21 per cent of Phoenix's heat-related deaths and 17 per cent of Tempe's, compared with a county average of 24 per cent - and more than 32 per cent in the cities of Scottsdale and Mesa, public health data showed.

Record-breaking heat waves in recent years have spurred some new legislation.