Do you think the government should supply air conditioners for the poor?

In extreme heat waves, most communities seem to have shelters available.

Great idea. What they do here is open public buildings with services provided by the Red Cross, similar to the disaster shelters. I often volunteer with our 7 passenger van to help with transport. Last year the major Taxi companies gave volunteer rides.

That would be a very good idea, if we had the extra cash to throw around.

Currenly in the Tampa/St Petersburg area, we have about 9,000 homeless people. We have shelter space for just about 1,500 of them. Our shelters run at 98–100% capacity all year ‘round.

I think finding a roof and a meal for the other 7,500 people (when the cops and HOAs are doing their damnedest to harass them out of existence, attacking them while they sleep, ripping up tent cities, etc.) is more pressing a matter than donating air conditioners.

Not the government but private charities or organizations can.

I think the government should work harder to encourage people to create and use alternative sources of energy so that global climate change doesn’t continue to create record-high temperatures.

I know that’s not really what you’re asking, but I’d rather see a long-term solution (stop fucking up the planet) than a short-term one (buy an air conditioner).

Maybe if there is a medical reason for it. Like someone is asthmatic or is elderly. As a kid till I was 20 we had no AC only fans. Of course we knew during extreme heat we should not do anything to over heat our selves further. We sometimes had a heat wave and the city would lose power. So we didn’t even have fans. So we showered more than usual and rested more than usual. Or we go to the beach, or pool, or go shopping in a cool store till evening came and the temp was lower.
In Puerto Rico the homes are made of concrete because it keeps cool. Many in Florida are the same way.
Unless you have a medical condition, staying indoors and drinking plenty of water and resting and showering should be enough to cool off.
There are also so many things a person can do to keep there home cool. Don’t chop down the trees around your house. It helps to lower the temp by up to 10 degrees. Use curtains that reflect the sun and keep it dark in the home. Don’t run a lot of machines that create heat in your home.
We also put fans facing outside of the window to help push hot air out.
Year after year you hear of people who die of heat exhaustion because they decided to do yard work or stayed out in the sun too long and made little effort to protect themselves.
Murphys law.

My city is giving out some donated air conditioners, but I guess government workers help distribute them? Not sure? And, they give out fans, not sure if that is tax payer money or not. Here is an article http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/jun/15/heat-treatment-06-15/ I think some other cities do give them for people who are ill? I seem to remember reading an articale once about NYC city doing it, but I am not sure how that works. Maybe it is under medicaid as medically necessary or something.

During a crisis situation there should be cool public places for the poor. France offered this in the summer of 2003. Still, thousands of people died because of the extreme heat. Some of the elderly without a caring family simply hadn’t managed to leave their homes.