This summer’s record-breaking heat is a dangerous health threat for DC families, especially when they struggle for weeks or months with broken air conditioning.

Ms. Torres* has worked with Children’s Law Center for years advocating to keep her son Nic healthy: he has epilepsy, and heat exhaustion can trigger his seizures. Her two youngest children also have asthma exacerbated by mold, stale air and the heat.

They’ve had AC issues since first moving into their home – but in June, the thermostat regularly spiked to the upper 80s. According to Nic’s doctor, his bedroom shouldn’t be above 70 degrees to minimize seizures. But the family’s landlord has delayed making repairs for years.

A few miles away, Ms. Davis faced similar issues with their building’s HVAC system. At 5 months pregnant, she was already suffering from hyperemesis gravidarum – which caused nausea, vomiting and severe dehydration. Then her AC broke.

The heat made things much worse for her as well as for her husband and son who have asthma. She ended up hospitalized for dehydration after temperatures in their house reached over 100 degrees. The landlord still refused to act.

“From a health standpoint, we are concerned that increased heat often is a trigger for asthma,” shared Dr. Jessica Nash, Associate Medical Director at Children’s National Anacostia Clinic. “Having a home that minimizes asthma symptoms is very important. If a housing unit has an AC unit, it is imperative that it is working correctly.”

When we can’t resolve issues directly with landlords, we turn to DC’s Housing Conditions Court to hold them accountable for housing code violations. While it’s a great strategy for long-term repairs, we sometimes need to turn to another tool in our toolkit when intense heat poses an acute threat to children and families: filing for temporary restraining orders (TROs) which can be used to force immediate action through DC Superior Court.

We successfully sought TROs for both Ms. Torres and Ms. Davis. One landlord was forced to install a window unit to bring down the temperature within 24 hours and the other had to cover the family staying in a hotel until repairs brought the thermostat back down to a normal range.

Learn more about TROs and how extreme temperatures affect the children and families we work with here.

Today, we’re continuing to work with Ms. Torres and Ms. Davis to address persisting housing issues that impact their children’s health. We are thankful we could use TROs to provide their families with some instant relief, and we will continue to use our full suite of legal tools to keep children and families healthy and out of the hospital.

With gratitude,

Tracy Goodman

Healthy Together Director

Children’s Law Center

P.S. TROs may not work for every situation and do not always address the underlying problems that lead to HVAC failures. That’s why we’re thankful for a $20M grant from EPA to our new partnership with National Housing Trust. The funds will be used to make more than 700 DC homes healthier, greener and more affordable. Read more here.

*We always provide clients the option to change their name when sharing their story. Pseudonyms and a stock photo have been used at the families' request. All other details are true.

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