Central Tucson from Sentinel Peak.
Pima County is expanding a summer program that offers free cooling sites during the day in various parts of Tucson.
Tucsonans now have access to a new cooling center at the Mission Annex facility — a former minimum-security jail — on the city’s west side.
It’s open and free to use from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays and 10a.m.-6 p.m. on the weekends — and equipped with AC, water and chairs.
It’s the latest addition to the county’s Beat the Heat program — which has set up a few dozen cooling sites around Tucson and the rest of the county, in addition hydration stops and other sites called respite centers, where people can lay down. Officials say the Mission Annex site was chosen because it’s an area with fewer resources and more mobile home parks — where heat deaths and injuries are more likely to occur — and is also close to the another
Kate Vesely is the director of the Pima County Department of Justice Services. She says the building has been empty since 2020 but because of its history as a jail, it already had AC and water capabilities.
Vesely says she also hopes that its proximity to the county’s Transitional Center — a justice services site that aims to help people charged with non-violent misdemeanors navigate the court system and prevent re-incarceration — can help connect people with more resources.
‘We might have folks who come into the Transition Center after they've gotten released from jail and say, you know, ‘I just really need some place where I can rest for a while,’ and they can come over here,” she said. “Likewise, if we have folks who come in here seeking cooling services only to realize that there's other stuff that we can potentially support them with, we can send them over to the transition center.”
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