Heatwaves, Housing, and Justice: Reflections from the Marg Barry Memorial Lecture

On November 20, Inner Sydney Voice brought the community together for the Marg Barry Memorial Lecture, centering on the urgent reality that extreme heat is reshaping how Sydney lives, moves, and survives. The event revealed not only the environmental stakes but also the deep social and structural inequalities that determine who stays safe and who doesn’t.

As a newcomer to Sydney, I’m taking the time to immerse myself in the city’s cultural and community landscape. That means being intentional in listening, learning, and understanding the diverse realities that shape daily life here. Being present in conversations like this helps me grasp not just the challenges residents face but also the strength, knowledge, and lived experiences that underpin community resilience.

While I’m not a climate change expert, my background in social impact and international development makes it clear that issues like extreme heat don’t exist in isolation. Climate change isn’t a siloed problem; it intersects with housing, income, disability, culture, race, health, migration, public safety, and the everyday conditions that shape people’s ability to live freely and with dignity. Understanding these intersections is essential because climate impacts ripple through every layer of our livelihoods.

Honouring First Nations Leadership

Emma Bacon, Executive Director of Sweltering Cities, opened the lecture by grounding the conversation in place. She reminded us that First Nations communities have been adapting to environmental changes long before climate policy existed. Their deep knowledge of land, culture, and sustainability offers a model of resilience that should guide adaptation efforts today.

Emma’s framing made something clear: any meaningful approach to climate justice in this country must begin with the insight and leadership of First Nations people.

Heat Is Universal, But Its Impacts Are Unequal

Emma shared findings from Sweltering Cities’ research in Western Sydney, where communities experience some of the worst heat conditions in the region. Neighborhoods like Fairfield, built heavily with concrete and lacking shade, record temperatures that are not just uncomfortable; they’re dangerous.

Despite the national government’s new climate risk assessment, many families are left with limited protection. 61% percent of survey respondents said cost-of-living pressures will make coping with heatwaves harder this summer. In Sydney’s most disadvantaged postcodes, that number rises to 73%.

Stories captured the stakes far more vividly. Emma told of a Pakistani mother who immigrated to Sydney, hoping to build a better life for her three children. Their apartment had no cooling system, and she could only afford three fans. Each night, she watched her children struggle to sleep in suffocating heat.

These are the realities shaping the heat crisis, not abstract forecasts, but the everyday hardships lived inside people’s homes.

Gaps That Leave People Behind

From Emma’s perspective, three major gaps remain unaddressed:

• People with disabilities face the highest risk during extreme heat, yet remain largely invisible in climate response.

• Public awareness around heat safety is low, leaving families with little guidance.

• Climate financing, especially private-sector investment, remains minimal despite rising need.

  
  

Basic infrastructure, like shaded bus shelters or cooling shelters, is lacking in many suburbs. Local councils, often relied upon for frontline support, are struggling with limited resources.

A Churchill Fellow’s Lens on Extreme Heat

Jon Swain, Head of Homelessness for the City of Sydney and a 2024 Winston Churchill Fellow, brought a perspective shaped by both local experience and international research. As part of his fellowship, he traveled to Los Angeles, Austin, New Orleans, Washington, D.C., Houston, Phoenix, and New York City to study how policymakers, service providers, and communities are responding to homelessness during extreme heatwaves.

Jon shared sobering data: homelessness is increasing in New South Wales (NSW). The street count rose from 1,314 people in 2020 to 2,192 in 2025. For individuals experiencing homelessness, heat isn’t just uncomfortable; it’s a dangerous and often deadly threat. The lack of safe, accessible cooling options puts lives at risk every summer.

From his U.S. research, Jon observed that American cities are two to three years ahead in heatwave response, particularly when it comes to public education, outreach, and preparedness. But the U.S. also reflects troubling patterns Australia is now beginning to see.

The Need for Training, Data, and Equity-Centered Cooling

Jon emphasized that Australia needs stronger training programs for frontline workers, more consistent community education, and standardized national data collection on heat-related deaths and hospital admissions. Without accurate data, governments underestimate the real toll of extreme heat, and resources remain misaligned.

He stressed the importance of equity-centered cooling systems and solutions that prioritize those most at risk rather than resorting to blanket approaches that don’t meet the needs of people experiencing homelessness.

Displacement and Policing in the Heat Era

Jon highlighted the growing trend of displacement and enforcement. In several U.S. cities, people experiencing homelessness are pushed out of parks and shaded areas, and in some cases penalized for resting in public spaces. He drew a connection to emerging policies in Australia. In the Northern Territory, a new plan would equip transit and public housing safety officers with quasi-policing powers, including carrying firearms while enforcing removals on buses, in supermarkets, and in other public spaces. This raises a critical question about why society often prioritizes control over care when responding to vulnerable individuals.

Why Storytelling Matters

Across all his observations, Jon returned to the need for more storytelling. While data is necessary, it’s the stories that humanize the crisis, shift public compassion, and influence policymakers in ways numbers alone cannot. He pointed to Victoria’s new mandate requiring heating and cooling installation in housing as an example of policy driven by both evidence and community pressure.

From Jon’s reflections, the message is clear. Heat and homelessness are deeply interconnected. Addressing them requires empathy, collaboration, and a willingness to confront the structural inequities that determine who gets to stay safe in a warming climate.

Lived Experience Leads the Way

Some of the most powerful reflections came from a couple of the community educators in the Done By Us project, Fiorella Vayda and Lan Nguyen, who spoke honestly about the heat-related challenges their communities face.

Fiorella shared how everyday conversations with neighbors have helped build trust and connection. She spoke about learning her own resilience by experiencing both privilege and hardship, and expressed a desire for policymakers to shadow her for a day to understand what residents truly grapple with.

Lan illustrated how heat amplifies issues often absent from policy conversations, like worsening pest infestations, sanitation challenges, the psychological weight of discomfort, and the small but meaningful changes, like removing carpet or installing solar, that could make a huge difference in one’s livelihood. She observed that many people remain disengaged and uninformed about climate issues because they don’t feel “touched” by them yet.

It is a universal truth that communities are already aware of their own needs. The critical missing element is a system prepared to both listen and take action.

What This Means Going Forward

Extreme heat is rising. Public investment is falling short. Developers continue to build for cost efficiency, not climate resilience. And the question of “who pays” for adaptation remains unresolved.

A frequent call from speakers was the importance of storytelling, not as a feel-good exercise, but as a tool to motivate decision-makers, shift public understanding, and amplify the lived realities behind the data. 

At the same time, another gap is the need for more private sector responsibility. As I listened, I kept thinking about the role of corporations and real estate developers, many of whom continue to treat climate adaptation as optional.

In reality, extreme heat affects:

• long-term revenue

• operational stability

• workplace safety

• customer experience

• insurance risk

• infrastructure durability

Unless businesses understand how heat directly impacts their bottom line, urgency will remain low. Too often, action only comes when profits are threatened. Building the case for climate adaptation, in language the private sector recognizes, is essential for creating momentum.

The challenge ahead is to translate community-based knowledge and lived experience into accountability mechanisms that relate both socially and economically.

A Final Reflection

This was my first time attending the Marg Barry Memorial Lecture, and it won’t be the last. I walked away with insights I’m ready to share within my network and community; insights that deepen understanding, open up important conversations, and highlight how interconnected these challenges really are. Events like this do so much to build awareness and collective momentum, and there’s a real need for more lectures and public conversations like this across the city. As Sydney continues to navigate rising heat and widening inequality, creating spaces that center lived experience and shared learning will only grow more important.