A battleground of climate change: Summer air temperatures in social housing

Source abstract

For social housing tenants, the compounding effects of hotter summers, low-quality buildings, and energy poverty create a high-risk environment with unsafe thermal conditions. The basic human right of indoor thermal safety is generally overlooked by funders, designers, and builders of social housing. This study used empirical data to assess the frequency, intensity, and duration of unsafe indoor air temperatures in single-level and multi-storey social housing across Greater Sydney, Australia. Regardless of location or building typology, all households experienced unsafe indoor temperatures during mild summer weather. Air temperatures ≥29°C were recorded in occupied rooms on 33-69 days in 2022/23, and 42-76 days in 2023/24. Indoor temperatures exceeded 35°C on 1-27 days in 2022/23 and 9-32 days in 2023/24. In an extreme case, indoor temperatures were ≥35°C for over 11 consecutive hours. Indoor temperatures were related to outdoor temperatures, with outdoor temperatures of 30.2-36.8°C needed to produce indoor temperatures ≥29°C. Social housing tenants anywhere in Greater Sydney will experience up to twice the current number of days (up to 148 days in the West) with indoor temperatures ≥29°C by 2060. This study highlights the urgent need to address thermal safety in social housing through improved standards for new buildings, alongside engineered and educational heat mitigation strategies for today’s social housing tenants. The current housing crisis in the developed world must not fuel the construction of low-quality social housing where vulnerable people are at high risk of more frequent exposure to excessive indoor heat in a climate change era.