Caritas Austria provides climate oases, fresh shelter and a heat protection kit to vulnerable people in several Länder and asks the Federal Government to work out a national plan to face the unprecedented heatwave. “The homeless are fully exposed to the heat. And low-income people often live in poky, poorly-insulated flats and can hardly escape extreme temperatures”, Klaus Schwertner, Director of Caritas Vienna, says. “For some time now, the climate crisis has become a social crisis too”, Schwertner adds. Taking measures to protect vulnerable people, with unrestricted-access insulated housing, big green areas and cool rooms in the cities, is essential. About 500 volunteers, with the parishes, run 24 “climate oases” in Vienna and in Lower Austria: fresh drinks and light meals are handed out there. Teams of volunteers hand out kits with drinking water, sun cream and summer sleeping bags. The Louisebus, “Caritas’s mobile clinic” is manned by volunteer doctors and drives through the streets five days a week. The Gruft (a shelter for homeless people) lists the places where homeless people sleep in the summer. The Vincentian social network VinziWerke makes a public appeal too: “If you see people who look weak or confused, please talk to them and, if in doubt, always call the emergency services”, Amrita Böker, General Director of VinziWerke, states. VinziWerke’s 40 facilities in Styria, Vienna and Salzburg provide shelter to 450 people.