Sociology

Housing is important for all people as it is considered to be one of the basic human needs. According to the Maslows hierarchy of needs, housing is a basic need that has to be fulfilled first before individuals think of fulfilling other needs. Without a roof above their head, people may not make initiative to fulfill their other needs like safety, beauty, self actualization, and others.  It is the duty of the society to ensure that all people are housed in decent structures that pose minimal danger to their health. There are a number of studies which have pointed out the importance of housing to even the poorest families.

According to Newman (2008), housing is important for even poor families who are struggling to get their daily needs. In this work, Newman points out that even for the mentally disabled people, housing is important as a basic need.  However, this work shows that there are groups in the society, like mentally disabled people, who are not interested in the quality of houses they live in as long as there is a cover over their head. This has been shown to pose a major health risk, especially in view of endotoxin. Thorne et al., (2009) showed that increased levels of endotoxin in household reservoir dust were associated with negative health effect. The study which explored the relationship between endotoxins at home and allergy showed that poverty conditions at home were more likely to contribute to increased levels of endotoxins. The increased levels of endotoxins were associated with poverty, pets, geography and posed increase risk to health. Similar concerns were pointed out by Dwyer (2007) who showed that the poor are segregated to old structures that pose more health risk.  This means that poverty may confine people to structures that pose health risk. However, the rising population, coupled with other factor like the recent economic crisis that led to massive foreclosures, has conspired to increase in the number of people in the world who spend nights and days on the street.  Homelessness is a major problem in almost all cities in the world. Despite governments efforts to mitigate the problem, including putting up more housing structures for homeless people, there are those who keep on coming back to the street. However, research studies have shown that the increased number of people living on the street may be a factor of mental problem as diagnosed in many street dwellers, rather than economical and social factors.

There are many dynamics to housing. Proper housing can be a defined as a situation where everybody has access to houses that meet all their needs. This means this is situation where every person in the society has access to decent housing structures with running water, electricity, good sewerage system, and other important services that accompany housing. This implies that a structure, that in hereby defined as a house, regardless of the form it takes, should be safe to be inhabited. A house should not pose major challenges to the people inhabiting it. It is also important to point out that the environment in which the house is situated is also an important factor.  In order to understand the effect of housing on children, families, and community, it is important to consider different dynamic in housing including the quality of the living environment, adequacy of housing or homelessness, risk factors for health in housing, and many other issues.

Housing and health are major concerns for policy makers. Research evidence shows that there can be detrimental effect of housing on health. There are many health risks in houses that have not been taken into consideration, especially during building phase. While most studies have shown that children are at an increased risk, it is important to note that all family members, and indeed the whole community, are at increased health risk from negative housing effects.  A study that was conducted by Jacobs et al., (2009) found that there was a correlation between housing and population health.  The study combined data from National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey and American Housing Survey. The aim of the study was to identify housing and health trends from 1970 to 2000.  The study found out that over the years, there have been changes in housing. Changes in housing were looked into in terms of type of construction, proportion of house ownership against the rental houses, age, density, size, moisture, pests, air conditions, water, leaks, and in other factors.  On the other hand, the study measured changes in health in terms of diseases like Asthma, obesity, diabetes, respiratory illness, lead poisoning, and others. The study found out that a number of health conditions were related to change in different aspects of housing. It revealed that changes in lead poisoning were related to housing age, water leaks, and ventilation. Asthma was related to ventilation, windows, age of the house. Trends in overweight were related to ventilation while blood pressure was related to community measures.

Overall, the study found out that these trends have not changed over time although slight changes were recorded. In conclusion, the study showed that housing and health were closely related and changed over the time. The study also showed that everybody was at risk in regard to housing health risk and future house designs should take into consideration some of these trends in order to come up with housing designs that pose less health risk.

One of the most important factors to consider in housing is the quality of the indoor environment. The indoor environment should provide safe place for all inhabitants. According to a research conducted by Wu et al., (2007), the indoor environment can be a major challenge for policy makers. According to the study, people spend 90 of their time indoors and therefore indoor environmental quality can have a great impact on public health. The study stressed that indoor environment poses a major public health challenge, especially for children.   Similar concerns were also raised by Gould (2009) in his study on childhood lead poisoning. This study showed that there has been increased amount of lead levels in childrens body owing to their exposure to lead paint that are used in most homes.  The study, which was a cohort study on children below the age of 6 years, showed that lead paints posed major health risk to children and cost their families and the government millions of dollars every year in treating related illnesses. 

The effect of housing environment on health was also explored in a study by Salo et al., (2009) in their study on mouse allergen exposure in houses. The study found out that mouse allergen was common in most inner cities in the US households and could be correlated to the increased incidences of asthma in these homes. The study examined whether high levels of mouse allergen are associated with increased incidence of asthma for house occupants. The study found out that more than 82 of households had elevated level of mouse allergen. The high level of mouse allergen was positively correlated with increased incidences of asthma for the inhabitants.

When it comes to residential health effects, children appear to be particularly at greater risk. Most studies have revealed that more adults and children are at an increased health risk from residential factors. From the above studies, it has been revealed that housing comes with detrimental health effects if all safety factors are not taken into considerations. The same results were evidenced in a study by Gaitens et al., (2009) in their work on Exposure of U.S Children to Residential Dust Lead between 1999 and 2004. This study was carried out in the background of the knowledge that lead contaminated house dust had been identified as a major health risk for children not only in the United States, but also in other countries as well.  The study aimed at comparing national lead levels with the health based standards that had been set by different health institutions with an aim of identifying factors which were associated with floor and windowsill lead. The study found out that although most houses had lead levels that complied with the set levels, there is increased risk of lead exposure to children.   The study found out that since risk of lead intoxication increased with exposure, children who live in houses, even those within set lead levels were at risk with long term exposure.   The study therefore recommended the need to have lower levels set for lead from floors and windowsill in order to reduce the risk of exposure to children.

The above studies have reinforced the importance of the living environment whether indoors or outdoors. The main reason why this study has concentrated on the aspects of health impact on housing on children, families, and community is due to the increasing concerns on consumer health. More and more people are paying millions of dollars every year for health expenses arising from housing related issues. As has been outlined in the study, indoor environment, the immediate environment surrounding homes has a lot of effect on health of the occupants, especially children. As the world moves towards policies ensured to house all people, there is greater need to concentrate on the health effect of the housing environment, thus minimal health effect from the living environment should exist.