On a scorching Boston street, a homeless man stood with a blanket around his neck, watching passersby. He had an empty stare and wasn’t sweating — a sign of dehydration. So the Pine Street Inn’s daytime outreach team gave him water bottles and the group’s clinician supervisor called emergency medical services to have him checked.
But before EMTs arrived, two police officers conversed with the man and saw there was no cause for concern. The Pine Street daytime outreach thanked them and moved on to their next stop.
People who live on the streets were particularly vulnerable to the record-breaking temperatures this week. Thousands of people experience homelessness in Boston, a small percentage of whom regularly spend days and nights without shelter.
On Thursday, Boston’s heat index reached 101 degrees.
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This week, Boston and Cambridge as well as aid groups sought to keep those communities safe through a variety of initiatives, including outreach teams and extended hours at shelters.
“A friendly smile and an offer to bring some water goes a long way,” Dr. Rebecca Lee, a doctor on the street team at Boston Health Care for the Homeless, the city’s largest homeless service provider, said in an email.
Lee said the consequences of extreme heat for people who live on the street are far-reaching. Skin cancer rates are high, sweat can prevent wounds from properly healing, and the logistics of obtaining medication during high temperatures can make it even harder to tend to the complex medical conditions that many people without shelter have.
Pine Street Inn, which operates four shelters in Boston and provides street outreach services, adjusted some of its outreach and accommodations in light of the additional heat-related risks posed on the vulnerable.
On Wednesday, 179 individuals living on the street received help during the day, said Ed Cameron, senior outreach director. Across the four shelter locations, they had 550 people. They also transported people to the hospital to treat heat-related illnesses.
“We’ve got relationships with the people on the street because we talk to them everyday,” Cameron said. “So there’s a certain amount of trust that we’ve developed over time that is helpful in a situation like this.”
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Those outreach efforts aren’t new. But Cameron said that this week the teams added hours to their nighttime coverage and extended their schedules to Saturday and Sunday to reach more people in need. Cameron noted that Pine Street’s shelters all have amnesty policies in place, meaning that people previously suspended from shelters for a past incident are allowed in, even if just to sit in the air-conditioned lobby for a few hours.
Alexander Sturke, director of communications for the Boston Mayor’s Office of Housing, said that other shelters and organizations that provide services to the homeless — including Eliot Community Human Services, Victory Programs, the DMH Homeless Outreach Team, Bridge Over Troubled Waters, and St. Francis House — will introduce similar amnesty initiatives and extended hours.
In Cambridge, the police and fire departments and the EMS team distributed water around the city, and Somerville-Cambridge Elder Services conducted additional wellness checks on the elderly.
For the homeless population, shelters at the Salvation Army and 240 Albany St. extended their daytime hours, and the Albany Street facility prepared for a dozen more overnight guests than normal.
Brian Teague, senior director of Advancement at First Step — a Cambridge-Somerville street outreach program — said that it experienced an uptick in homeless people during the heat wave who need medical services or asked where they could find shelter. First Step also said it bolstered medical and food, including water, Popsicles, and sunblock.
“Because the First Step Outreach team works on the street and has established trust with the people they serve, they have seen an uptick in the number of guests at the shelter,” Teague added.
For Jenny Tirrone, who was sitting in her wheelchair on Washington Street in Boston on Thursday, the heat wave has only added to her troubles.
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She had her share of dizziness this week, but said she has been careful to stay hydrated. She is recovering from a sunburn, and chasing shade from one side of the street to the other isn’t a quick or easy adjustment on her wheelchair, she said.
“It doesn’t take much to be a kind or good person — just smile at them,” Tirrone said. “Instead of, like, when people walk by me they give me a look sometimes, like him,” pointing to a passerby.
Madison Hahamy can be reached at madison.hahamy@globe.com. Follow her @MHahamy. Natalie La Roche Pietri can be reached at natalie.larochep@gmail.com.