Chicago Tenants’ Union Distributes AC Units to Low-Income Renters

A Chicago nonprofit is distributing free air conditioning units to low-income tenants in the city to help people stay safe during extreme heat events.

As Lucas Frisancho explains in Next City, “Through social media outreach and in-person, grassroots organizing, organizers source AC units and personally visit tenants to install them for free. The equipment is collected and stored over the winter, to be returned to the same tenants next summer. Last summer, the group gave out less than 20 units; this summer, they expect to give away more than 70.”

The project, dubbed the People’s Cooling Army, is an initiative of the All-Chicago Tenant Alliance. The organization is also conducting outreach about tenants’ unions and encouraging renters to unionize and leverage their power. “Founded in 2023, the People’s Cooling Army has been entirely powered by donations. All its operations are conducted by nine members with access to three cars.”

Extreme heat poses a growing public health risk to urban residents, particularly low-income households without access to cooling, which are often located in neighborhoods with the highest temperatures due to extensive pavement and lack of green space and trees. In Chicago, three women in a senior living facility died from excessive heat exposure in a 2022 heat wave. The city responded with an ordinance that calls for air conditioning in ‘common gathering spaces’ in senior housing and larger buildings, but the Tenants’ Alliance says the legislation applies to few of the cities’ buildings.