🤗 Good Thursday morning!

☀️ Today's weather: Sunny, with a high around 100 and a low around 80.

🎸 Sounds like: "La Grange" by ZZ Top.

Today's newsletter is 946 words — a 3.5-minute read.

Houston is opening its first LGBTQ+-affirming emergency shelter for homeless teens to stay temporarily.

Why it matters: Teens have few shelter options, especially queer-friendly ones, when they leave or are kicked out of an unsafe home, Grace Place executive director Courtney Sellers tells Axios.

Driving the news: Grace Place, a Houston nonprofit that supports young people experiencing homelessness, will open Asia's House on Sept. 1 with support from the Montrose Center.

• The six-bed emergency shelter will serve 15- to 17-year-olds experiencing homelessness or housing instability in Harris, Fort Bend and Montgomery counties.
• The shelter is open to young people of all sexualities and gender identities.

How it works: Teens can enter the program voluntarily without a parent or guardian signing them in.

• Staff must attempt to contact their parent or guardian within 72 hours.
• The goal is to find safe, stable long-term housing within 21 days, whether that's returning home with additional support or finding another placement.

Zoom in: Asia's House includes an office, a clothing closet where teens can get clothes and essentials, and a therapy room for on-site counseling.

• The shelter will also provide case management, life skills training and education and employment support.
• The location is not being disclosed to protect residents' safety and privacy.

What they're saying: "What makes our space unique is that we accept youth of all sexualities and genders, and we're affirming to all youth," Sellers says.

• "We know that the need is there," she says, adding Grace Place already regularly hears from young people looking for somewhere to stay.

Between the lines: Asia's House is specifically seeking to serve 15- to 17-year-olds because they can fall between existing systems.

• Adult shelters can't take minors, while other youth shelters may operate through CPS placements or require parents to consent to a stay, Sellers says.
• "There's this large group of young people who are older teens who are left in this limbo," she says.

Asia's House is named after Asia Jynaé Foster, a young transgender Houstonian and Grace Place community member who was murdered in 2020 and had advocated for this kind of support.

The World Cup didn't appear to affect the air quality in Houston, which hosted seven games over three weeks, according to new data from Air Alliance Houston exclusively shared with Axios.

By the numbers: Average air quality index (AQI) was 23 during the June 11-July 19 tournament, compared with 33 in the month before Houston's first World Cup match and 34 about one month after, through Aug. 6.

• On match days, average AQI ranged from about 14 to 29.

How it works: Air Alliance Houston measured pollution in part through 15 new air quality monitors and two larger monitoring stations installed before the tournament in the Green Corridor, a 14-mile route linking the Fan Festival in East Downtown to Reliant Stadium.

Between the lines: More traffic typically means more vehicle emissions, making air quality a potential concern as Houston welcomed thousands of visitors for the tournament.

• But the group's measurements suggest the influx of visitors did not significantly worsen Houston's already poor air quality.

What they're saying: "Air quality levels in the area remained near expected levels during this time of the year - perhaps a consequence of increased multimodal public transportation provided by the city," Anthony D'Souza, the community air monitoring program manager, said in a statement to Axios.

• D'Souza noted there were some peaks in nitrogen dioxide and ozone in late July, but that was after the tournament had ended.

🏠 Rental units in Houston must provide air conditioning under a new city ordinance and all landlords must install a unit in the next 120 days. (Houston Public Media)

Frank Beard, the longtime drummer for Houston rock legends ZZ Top, died Monday at 77. (Houston Public Media)

🧬 The National Institutes of Health awarded the University of Houston an $18 million grant to study chronic diseases. (CultureMap Houston)

📚 Quote du jour

"We're coming for the books."

🧺 Bring your picnic blanket and play Bingo tonight at Market Square Park.

• 6-9pm. $10.

🏒🧛 Combine your passions and dance at the "Heated Rivalry" and "Twilight" party at Warehouse Live.

• Starts at 9pm Friday. Tickets start at $32.

🎨 View the new "Shifting in Skin" exhibit at the Redbud Art Center on opening night.

• 6-9pm Saturday.

🦇 Bike along Buffalo Bayou to the Waugh Bridge Bat Colony. Along the way, learn from a bat expert about the species.

• $10. Begins at 7:15.

🛍️ Shop at the Punk Rock Garage Sale at Bad Astronaut Brewing.

• 2-6pm Sunday. Free, minus all the shopping you might do.

We had our last 8pm summer sunset this week. Hey, we're just the messengers.

The big picture: We lose a little more daylight every day as the Earth's Northern Hemisphere tilts away from the Sun through Dec. 21, which will be the shortest day of the year.

The bottom line: Sunsets are still in the 7:50pm range, but they're getting earlier by the day. So enjoy late evening sunsets while they last and finish up your summer bucket list.

Thanks to Bob Gee for editing this newsletter.

🇨🇻 Shafaq is flagging this giveaway in which commenters can win a flag from ten World Cup nations that played in Houston.