Application hurdles limit access to free ACs for low-income people in B.C., say advocates

Gabrielle Peters was keen to apply for a free portable air conditioner when British Columbia announced it would provide thousands of units to low-income and vulnerable people across the province in June.

Peters, a disabled writer and policy advocate who sits on Vancouver's City Planning Commission, lives in social housing and receives provincial disability assistance.

After she suffered heat stroke during the 2021 heat dome that killed 619 people, she was able to crowdfund for a second-hand portable air conditioner.

The aging appliance wasn't strong enough to prevent headaches and nausea from the heat last summer, and Peters can't to afford to replace it when it breaks down completely. 

"I thought I should apply because it's not new and by the time I might be accepted, I don't know that it will still be working," Peters told CBC News.

But when she went to apply online through the B.C. Hydro website, she couldn't submit her application because she didn't have her own B.C. Hydro account number. 

Like renters in many social housing buildings, SROs and basement suites, individual units in Peters's building don't have separate meters and hydro is included in her rent.

It wasn't until three weeks after she tried to apply that a mail-in application option was introduced for renters without their own accounts on July 20, according to a Friday statement from the Ministry of Health and the B.C. Hydro website.

While Peters is glad for the change, she and other advocates say the initial account requirement is just one of many barriers keeping air conditioners out of the hands of people who need them most as climate change is forecasted to make extreme heat more frequent and intense in B.C.

Needing to get written consent from landlords, proof of income requirements and access to a computer to apply or print a paper application are all out of reach for many eligible disabled people and those living on low-incomes, she added.

"What I'm hearing for the most part from people is that they're not applying," said Peters.

AC program a 'lottery-to-live'

On June 28, B.C. announced it would spend $10 million to provide up to 8,000 portable air conditioners to low-income and "heat vulnerable" people over the next three years.

The program has received more than 2,600 applications so far, approved 1,600 and installed nearly 300 units, B.C. Hydro said in a Friday emailed statement to CBC News.

The announcement is the result of a recommendation from an expert panel on the 2021 heat dome convened by the B.C. Coroners Service.

The panel found the vast majority of people who died had multiple physical or mental health conditions or received government assistance.

"Extreme heat emergencies can cause significant health challenges for vulnerable people and that's why we have taken steps to better prepare the province and the health-care system," said Health Minister Adrian Dix in a statement Friday.

To qualify for a free AC, an individual living alone must make less than $38,200 annually, whereas a household of 7 or more people cannot have a combined income of more than $101,000. 

Dix said the program ensures those who need ACs most, will receive them.

But the program has been panned by some experts and advocates as lacking urgency and covering only a fraction of the province's elderly, disabled and low-income residents, including nearly 400,000 living in poverty.

Karen Ward, a Downtown Eastside advocate and former consultant to the City of Vancouver, said many people in the neighbourhood aren't even applying because of the obstacles and uncertainty of when an AC could arrive.

With "8,000 ACs [government isn't] even pretending to try to be adequate," Ward wrote in a message to CBC News.

Peters participated in a provincial death review panel following the 2021 heat dome where she made eight recommendations. One was to urgently provide air conditions as medical devices for disabled people. She said all of her recommendations were rejected by the panel and she ended her participation, removing her name from the final report.

She said the free air conditioner program the province came up with fails to recognize that everyone is vulnerable to extreme heat, and that simply including disabled people in decision-making does not mean programs will serve them.

Peters describes the program as a "lottery-to-live" for poor and disabled people.

"If you were to deliberately and consciously try to design a roll out of air conditioning funding in a way that would have the least number of people having access to it, who are actually eligible for it — I don't think you could design a more effective methodology than they have," she said.