DALLAS - As North Texas approaches triple digit temperatures this weekend, Dallas Life, its largest homeless shelter, often tasked with bringing people in out of the searing heat, is faced with five broken air conditioners.
"Unfortunately I don't have anywhere else to go," Carey Geer, 37, said.
She and her two-year-old son moved in to Dallas Life just before five of its 24 air conditioning units went out recently.
Their loss has driven the indoor temperature to almost 90.
Fans now circulate air in the chapel, dorms and dining area.
"The dining room is so hot you really don't want to stay in there and eat," Geer added.
Dallas Life said it cannot afford the $69,000 repair bill.
"It comes down to a question of safety and health," Bob Sweeney, Dallas Life Executive Director, explained. "Here we are trying to teach and instruct people as we're retraining them and they an hardly breathe as they walk through the building."
Sweeney said Dallas County Health and Human Services promised 20 months ago to make fixes but has yet to follow through.
Dallas County said it's not in the emergency repair business. The county told News 8 it's planning much more comprehensive weatherization work at Dallas Life by spending $800,000 in stimulus money - not just new air conditioners but new windows, ducts and electrical work.
"The state does not allow us to just do emergency AC replacement or repair on commercial buildings," Zachary Thompson, Director of Dallas County Health and Human Services, said. "If we were allowed to do that I would have done it by now."
Dallas County said it didn't get the stimulus until January 2010 and still hopes to start work in six months.
Carey Geer and 300 others at Dallas Life pray for another donor soon to keep the inside from feeling so much like the outside.
Email: jwhitely@wfaa.com
