For Penny Harmon, when it’s hot, it’s hard to breathe. On Monday, temperatures reached 94 degrees in Portland.
“The heat comes through the walls,” she said. “It doesn’t just come through the windows, cause my walls are real thin. The heat literally comes through, especially that wall there comes right on through and you can’t breathe in here.”
Penny Harmon learns how to use the remote to her new air conditioning unit courtesy of Portland Clean Energy Fund in Portland, Ore., July 1, 2025. PCEF's Cooling Portland program provides portable cooling equipment to low-income city residents, prioritizing those who need it most.
Morgan Barnaby / OPB
On hot days, she sometimes calls her sister to pick her up or heads over to the mall or the doctor’s office to find a cool place to pass time. Other times, Harmon, who is 64, lies on the ground and tries to keep as still as she can, while running a standing fan in her kitchen. But that can only do so much.
At night, she’s restless because of the heat, she said, and that back and forth bothers her cat, Precious.
But that changed Tuesday – the second hot day in a row, when the city was expected to reach 86 degrees, and when Harmon received one of more than 15,000 free air conditioning units so distributed so far to Portlanders who are vulnerable to extreme heat.
“This is a blessing,” she said as soon as the install was complete. “I don’t have to go anywhere. I can stay in my home. Without it, I couldn’t stay in here during the day or night.”
The Portland Clean Energy Fund’s Cooling Portland program offers a free energy-efficient portable air conditioning unit to qualified city residents with lower incomes. It was created after the deadly 2021 heat dome when nearly 100 people died of heat-related stress throughout the state.
Now that she has her own AC unit, Harmon said she can do all kinds of things, including painting and cleaning when it’s hot.
And falling asleep won’t be a difficult task for her anymore, she said.
“Tonight it’s going to stay right there on that 70,” she said. “I’m very excited.”
High summer temperatures reaching 90 degrees or more are occurring more frequently in Oregon, with some areas experiencing days with higher-than-average, triple-digit numbers. The Pacific Northwest is not accustomed to long periods of high heat. That’s led many homes in the region to lack proper cooling devices to help find relief from the heat.
Last year, the Oregon Department of Energy study found many of the state’s most vulnerable residents lack the necessary equipment to stay cool in their homes during hot summers. The study also found that residents in Multnomah County are more likely to be exposed to extreme heat and have limited capacity to adapt to it.
Cooling Portland aims to fill those gaps by providing free units for low-income Portlanders who live within the city limits, who can’t otherwise afford to buy the equipment for themselves. Priority goes to people over the age of 60, people living alone and people with medical conditions that make them more susceptible to heat.
In June, the program reached a milestone of installing 15,000 units, more than a year and a half before the original deadline. The goal is to install 25,000 units by the end of 2026. As of Tuesday, the program has installed more than 16,670 units.
A new portable air conditioning unit courtesy of PCEF’s Cooling Portland begins cooling the home of a low-income resident in Portland, Ore., July 1, 2025. The Cooling Portland program is one aimed at providing portable cooling equipment to low-income Portland residents, prioritizing those who need it most.
Morgan Barnaby / OPB
Pilar Calderin is the climate justice program manager at Earth Advantage, the organization that oversees buying the units, managing inventory and coordinating with community partners on delivery and installation.
“There is a lot of demand from the community and a lot of motivation from the community distribution partners who do the installation,” she said.
Calderin said the organizations always relay how grateful residents are to receive their cooling units.
“We hear all types of stories about recipients, like making a scarf for the installers, giving them for when it’s winter time. Making sure to bake cookies, talking to them, showing family pictures,” she said. “Everybody’s so grateful.”
Earth Advantage works with 12 community partners to help with installations throughout Portland.
Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon is one of them. Eduardo Diaz is the cooling coordinator and installed Harmon’s unit. He said it usually takes about 20 minutes to install a unit and he does about seven of them a day.
(Left to right) Rele Martinez and Eduardo Diaz with Cooling Portland install a new portable air conditioning unit in the home of a low-income resident of Portland, Ore, July 1, 2025. The Cooling Portland program is one aimed at providing portable cooling equipment to low-income Portland residents, prioritizing those who need it most.
Morgan Barnaby / OPB
“It makes me feel wonderful,” he said. “This is one of the things that I look forward to do. When I started working with Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, helping vulnerable families with climate change, this is one of the few things that we can do to help mitigate the changes.”
Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon has been part of Cooling Portland for three years. In that time, the organization has helped install close to 400 units, he said.
“This year we have installed more than 100 units, and our goal is to install more than 700 units by the end of the program,” he said.
Residents can find out more about the program by calling 311, which is what Harmon did to get her unit.
