Every summer in Austin, people die from heat.

We decided that wasn't okay.

Hi, we're Emily and Calvin. We're students in Austin, and we started 512°F because we learned that people in our city are getting seriously sick — and sometimes dying — from heat that we barely notice from inside our air-conditioned homes. We wanted to do something real about it. This project is part of a year-long civic leadership program, and everything we do is student-led, research-based, and community-focused. We believe young people have a role to play in making Austin safer for everyone.

MISSION STATEMENT

512°F exists to help unhoused people in Austin — and their pets — stay safe and comfortable during extreme heat by providing simple, practical cooling support, because no one should suffer or die from heat.

  • Austin summers are dangerous. In a single recent summer, our city logged over 70 days above 100 degrees. Between 2018 and 2023, nearly two dozen unhoused Austinites died specifically from heat exposure — and researchers believe the true number is higher because heat deaths are routinely undercounted. Unhoused people face risks that housed people don't: no air conditioning, no shade, no cold water on demand, and no safe place to sleep when nighttime temperatures stay dangerously warm. People with pets face even more barriers, because most cooling centers don't allow animals. The system has good intentions, but real gaps — and those gaps cost lives.

  • We've done our research. Now we need partners who are doing the work on the ground.

    We're looking for Austin-based nonprofits, mutual aid groups, faith communities, and service organizations who work directly with unhoused neighbors — especially around heat safety, outreach, or supplies. We want to learn from you: What's working? What's missing? Where could youth volunteers and donated resources make a real difference this summer?

    If your organization is already doing this work — or wishes it could do more — we'd love to connect. We're not here to reinvent the wheel. We're here to help push it forward.

    Contact us

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© 2026 512*F, a project by Moore Family Charitable Foundation