A Healthy Home
The ideal home is not just a building for shelter.
A home should be a place cold, rain and sun, wind, pests, disasters such as
floods and earthquakes, and pollution and disease. Unfortunately, many people’s
living conditions do not protect their health.
Poor living conditions may even cause illness, or make health problems
worse. Whether people live close together or spread apart, poor housing, indoor
air pollution, pests, and toxic chemicals in household products can cause many
illnesses.
As more people move from rural areas into cities
and towns, the way people live and maintain their homes changes, often for the
worse. People who spend a lot of time in the home, such as children, the
elderly and disabled, and people with long-term health problems such as HIV,
suffer the most. How to improve living conditions by making homes safer and
more comfortable depends on local traditions, available materials, and climate.
Unfortunately, it also depends on income and ownership. People who rent their
homes often have little control over their living conditions and must depend on
their landlords to make improvements.
People in shantytowns, marginal communities, or
other “temporary” settlements (which too often become permanent) live in homes
that rarely provide security or comfort. But whether a person owns, rents, or
lives in makeshift housing, working with neighbors is the most effective way to
improve living conditions in the whole neighborhood.
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