Building Heat Resilient Homes across California and New York City

Dr. Neeta Thakur and UCSF collaborators—Dr. Amy Padula and Dr. Priya Shete– along with partners at the University of California, San Diego (Dr. Tarik Benmarhnia), Regional Asthma Management and Prevention (Anne Kelsey Lamb; Brandon Kitagawa), Columbia University (Dr. Robbie Parks) and WE ACT for Environmental Justice (Dr. Anhthu Hoang) received a three-year Climate Impacts Award from the Wellcome Trust to study how extreme indoor temperatures affect health, and gather information on how to pass policies that help protect against the effects of extreme heat. This project titled “Heat Smart: Integrating Community Impact, Interventions and Policy for Heat Resilience”, aims to:

• Study how extreme heat affects health at different stages of life.
• Estimate the health and cost benefits of housing and infrastructure improvements that keep indoor spaces cooler during heat waves.
• Develop a policy toolkit to help communities and decision-makers identify and overcome barriers to passing and implementing heat-protective policies.