{"id":409163,"date":"2026-08-17T20:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T20:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/409163\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T20:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T20:40:08","slug":"houston-officials-to-give-away-125-air-conditioners-to-residents-in-need-heights-river-oaks-montrose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/409163\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston officials to give away 125 air conditioners to residents in need | Heights &#8211; River Oaks &#8211; Montrose"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Houston City Council member Alejandra Salinas will <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstontx.gov\/council\/4\/ac4you.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">give away portable air conditioners<\/a> to residents in need throughout August.<\/p>\n<p>The details<\/p>\n<p>To be eligible for the giveaway, residents must fit into one of these categories:<\/p>\n<p>Seniors 60 years old or olderLow-income householdsDisabled veteransIndividuals with disabilitiesFamilies facing financial hardship<\/p>\n<p>Up to 125 units will be distributed. Salinas said this giveaway will help provide immediate relief to Houston residents who need it most to stay safe during the heat.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn Houston, access to air conditioning can no longer be a luxury,\u201d she said in a written statement. \u201cNo senior, veteran, person with a disability, or family struggling to make ends meet should have to endure dangerous indoor temperatures because they cannot afford adequate cooling.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Some context<\/p>\n<p>This giveaway comes right before Houston City Council is set to vote on the <a href=\"https:\/\/communityimpact.com\/heights-river-oaks-montrose\/government\/houston-council-to-consider-ordinance-that-closes-air-conditioning-loophole-in-rentals\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Right to Air Conditioning ordinance,<\/a> which Salinas proposed in July to close a loophole that allowed rental properties to use window screens as a substitute for cooling. Salinas\u2019 changes to the ordinance would instead require property owners to provide and maintain operable air conditioning.<\/p>\n<p>If passed, the ordinance would require compliance through providing either central air, window units, portable A\/Cs or other refrigerated air equipment. However, the ordinance would not require buildings without central air to be retrofitted with it.<\/p>\n<p>Why it matters<\/p>\n<p>Between 2019 and 2023, Harris County Public Health reported more than 7,600 cases of heat-related illness, according to Salinas\u2019 office, and local health data shows that indoor environments without air conditioning significantly increase the risk of heat-related health complications.<\/p>\n<p>One more thing<\/p>\n<p>Residents may apply for a portable A\/C unit through an <a href=\"https:\/\/forms.cloud.microsoft\/pages\/responsepage.aspx?id=EFqoV4sltEWlGclsdyEJTMqyGeN2da9Ovyf5xhLF_fxURUZYQ1ZRRlE3VFIwOUk3UEY4NldCS1lHVSQlQCN0PWcu\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">online application form<\/a>, which closes Aug. 31 or until the city runs out of units. City council is set to vote on the ordinance at its Aug. 19 meeting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Houston City Council member Alejandra Salinas will give away portable air conditioners to residents in need throughout August.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[142925,142924,131845,17827,56,131846,131844,19401,58,131848,57,131847],"class_list":["post-409163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-a-c-giveaway-houston","tag-a-c-units","tag-air-conditioning-requirements","tag-alejandra-salinas","tag-houston","tag-houston-a-c","tag-houston-air-conditioning-ordinance","tag-houston-apartments","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-landlords","tag-houston-news","tag-window-units"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}