This summer was the deadliest on record for heat-associated fatalities in Arizona's largest county amid a growing wave of homelessness. Public health statistics this week confirmed a record 359 such deaths just days before the end of the six-month heat season.

These people living in the streets are our neighbors, and we have a duty to treat them like neighbors. Trash and waste can be thrown away. Things that are broken can be replaced. But human lives that are lost on the streets of our city cannot be brought back.

A Senate bill could lead to converting a hotel into a shelter to cope with a growing population of homeless seniors in the West Valley.

The overflow shelters on the Human Services Campus are set to close by the end of October, and local officials and nonprofits are working hard to find a more permanent housing arrangement for the residents who need it.