Naomi Gabriel —
Enhancing the positive well-being of children in our respective communities should in every ramification, encouraged. Some of the ways we can see to this is by ensuring the provision of a suitable and safe environment with opportunities to be part of positive activities for our children to thrive, providing the right conditions for them to develop, teaching them how to relate with family members and friends, positively making them understand what and who they are (respected identity) and ensuring that they don’t lack.
Majority of children are found in families on low-income earnings, burdened with a high cost housing as compared to what they earn. This burden negatively affects what is supposed to be spent on children to enhance their development – academically, socially, mentally or psychologically.
Parents who earn high are more likely to understand better the need to afford their kids more care and attention to aid their growth through the acquiring of items like books or other intellectual materials or activities, all because they can easily afford them. However, comparably, this is unlikely to be the case with parents who earnings are low or lower.
Furthermore, having a good educational foundation propels a child mentally, to be ahead of his/her peers who did not. This is usually seen in kids whose parents are affluent. But, kids from low-income families are less likely to attend kindergarten – this explains one of the reasons gaps exist in levels of IQ between kids from low income homes and their counterparts from high income families.
Problem of housing quality and instability as caused by lack of decent affordable housing , can also have demeaning effects on a kid’s mental and physical state. Poor housing conditions like exposure to domestic hazards, overcrowding, unkept environments also affect both the short and long term psychological state of children.
In essence, what this article aims at em-broadening is that, provision of housing assistance gives children from low-income families the opportunity to maintain a good healthy status that covers academics, finance, health, well-being, while curtailing future societal vices. When families can afford good, decent homes, everyone benefits.
It is difficult for an individual or family to think of bettering their conditions in the face of poor housing conditions or unstable housing. When majority of their thoughts are centered or occupied by where and how to get decent homes, there would be little time or lack of concentration to think of how best to shape their futures. They would be less likely to be optimistic in life.
