Nobody Asks Renters How Hot Their Bedroom Gets

Sweltering Cities started in the suburbs of western Sydney — Blacktown, Parramatta, Liverpool — where summer temperatures run far above the coastal city centre and the housing is least equipped for it, and grew into Australia's national organisation on heat, housing and inequality. Its central argument is that heat exposure is distributed by tenure and income rather than weather: renters cannot install insulation, shading or air conditioning, and there are no minimum standards requiring a landlord to make a home survivable in summer the way there are for winter in other countries. The organisation builds the evidence directly from residents rather than from modelling — its 2026 Summer Survey drew more than 2,600 responses across 766 postcodes — and campaigns for minimum rental heat standards in New South Wales. It also convenes the parts of the conversation usually left out, including a heat and disability symposium in May 2026 attended by over 120 people.