Tempe Unveils New Mobile Cooling Center

Jenny’s Trailer offers those who are homeless a cool place to hydrate

The City of Tempe launched a new mobile cooling center, called Jenny’s Trailer, to serve those experiencing homelessness in the community.

The solarized 20-foot travel trailer is a unique collaboration among the city, the Honorable Jenny Norton and Arizona State University. Staffed by the city’s HOPE homeless outreach specialists, the trailer will provide respite from extreme heat and a place to connect to housing and social services. 

Councilmember Lauren Kuby, who works at ASU’s Stardust Center and brought the partners together, said, “The city is grateful for our longtime collaborations with Jenny and her husband Bob Ramsey and Arizona State University, and for our shared desire to serve individuals in need during the most difficult and dangerous months of the year.”

Norton, a longtime philanthropist and community advocate for the houseless, donated $15,000 to the city’s HOPE homeless outreach program to purchase the trailer that ASU’s EPICS (Engineering Projects in Community Service) students converted into a mobile cooling center.

Jenny’s Trailer will be open on extreme heat days. Following this year’s pilot program, the city will operate the trailer during the summer months at locations like parks across the city. Two HOPE outreach specialists will provide onsite connections to temporary shelter, housing programs, the city’s Tempe Works jobs program, community medical services and more.

During cooler months of the year, the HOPE team will continue using the trailer to provide connections to services, shelter and housing. Norton was inspired to support the mobile cooling center by fond childhood memories of growing up in a South Phoenix trailer park. Schoolmates would often gather at “Jenny’s Trailer” to enjoy the park’s common area and pool.

“Here in our hometown of Tempe and across the greater Valley of the Sun and beyond, we know that there are many who need that small bit of assistance that can ultimately feel so immense,” Norton said. “This is why it is my honor to collaborate with the city, ASU, and those who are experiencing homelessness to provide a new place, our little trailer, offering safe harbor as well as access to some cool drinks, Wi-Fi, and welcoming friendship.”

ASU’s Healthy Urban Environments (HUE) initiative worked to ensure the trailer design would fulfill the mission to provide a welcoming, sustainable location for unhoused individuals to escape the heat. HUE’s project manager, Liza Oz-Golden, worked with EPICS students and City of Tempe staff to create a space that people would want to visit. Solar experts with Sun Valley Solar Solutions ensured that the renewable energy system would keep the space cool during hot summer months without creating a negative impact on the environment.

“It was a high priority for us to reach out to the unhoused individuals where they live and to create a mobile cooling center that provides heat relief but doesn’t contribute to poor air quality. Using solar power was an alternative to a dirty diesel generator,” Oz-Golden said. “As a result, Jenny’s Trailer provides a healthy environment, and we hope it will help improve their quality of life and provide relief from the heat.”

For more information, go to tempe.gov/heatrelief. For details about the HOPE homeless outreach program, visittempe.gov/endinghomelessness.

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