Document Type

Report

Publication Date

6-2026

Abstract

In the Summer of 2021, Multnomah County experienced a heat dome that resulted in the tragic deaths of 75 people and caused 258 individuals to seek medical care in emergency rooms and urgent care facilities. While heat related treatment had been experienced in previous heat waves, no heat related deaths had been recorded by the county prior to the Heat Dome. Since 2021, heat-related fatalities have remained elevated above the pre-2021 baseline. Medical visits for illness and injury also remain elevated from 2021 onwards. Many of the more easily implementable short-term solutions have already been implemented in Portland, and the HHC team is looking to plan for deeper changes to physical infrastructure to limit the extent to which the built environment amplifies ground-level temperature during extreme heat events. Further, this project from HHC calls for building relationships to improve adaptive capacity during extreme heat.

In January of 2026, the Multnomah County Health Department Healthy Homes and Communities (HHC) team contracted with Doug Fir Partners, a group of graduate students in the Master of Urban and Regional Planning Program at Portland State University, to identify solutions for the increasing prevalence of extreme heat events in Multnomah County. Doug Fir Partners was tasked with developing a heat intervention pilot program for one of six Heat Resilience Focus Areas (HRFAs) identified by the HHC team. HRFAs are areas in the county that are especially hot during summer months, and where people are the most exposed, sensitive, and limited in their ability to respond to extreme heat events. As a focus for this project, Doug Fir Partners selected the Gateway HRFA that aligns with Multnomah County Census Tract 81. This is located in the Hazelwood neighborhood of East Portland and is bounded by the I-205 freeway, Northeast Halsey Street, Northeast 122nd Avenue, and East Burnside Street.

Description

Prepared by Doug Fir Partners as part of the Portland State University 2026 Master of Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) Workshop.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/44989

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