Homeless populations can't access smoke shelters because shelters require sobriety or ID

When cities like Portland, Sacramento, or Medford open emergency 'smoke shelters' or 'clean air centers' during AQI 200+ events, homeless individuals — the population with the highest smoke exposure because they live entirely outdoors — often cannot enter because these shelters enforce sobriety requirements, ban pets, require government ID, or are located in areas inaccessible without a car. A person living in a tent encampment near I-5 in Medford during the 2020 Almeda Fire smoke event had AQI exposure exceeding 500 for days with no viable shelter option. The shelters that do accept them typically close at 6 PM because they are repurposed community centers with limited staffing budgets. This persists because emergency smoke shelter planning is bolted onto existing homeless shelter infrastructure, which was designed with sobriety and ID requirements for liability and safety reasons, and cities have not created a separate 'clean air access' framework that treats smoke shelters as a public health intervention rather than a housing service.