Do you ever look around your neighborhood and environment and think to yourself how different it was a few years back? The condition of the neighborhood, the environment, and even the people around you have changed. It’s not like you used to be. With some neighborhoods it may not be safe to let your kids play outside anymore, or the roads and sidewalks aren’t as clean anymore. You would have to walk down several blocks until you would find a trash can that is probably overflowing from trash that has yet to be picked up. The conditions of the neighborhoods are changing and it affects everyone living in the area.

“Neighborhood-level effects on health have been documented; these include elevated rates of intentional injury,79,80 poor birth outcomes, 81 cardiovascular disease, 82 HIV,83 gonorrhea, 84 tuberculosis, 85 depression, 86 physical inactivity, 87,88 and all-cause mortality 89–91 in neighborhoods of low socioeconomic status, independent of individual level risk factors,” according to Krieger and Higgins. When I see all these numbers for all these different health problems I start to wonder about the living conditions. It’s not just one health problem, it’s many. And the numbers keep elevating. We’re suppose to feel safe in our homes and environment, but these health problems say otherwise. There have been many disparities on health issues with housing such as lead poisoning, or breathing issues due to neighborhood fires, but nothing this serious. But of course every issue involving housing should be taken seriously.

These type of health issues should be taken care of, especially if it is occurring in a neighborhood setting with the rates elevating. When I think about the neighbor I live in, it’s changed, a lot. Yes, it’s still noisy because it’s the city so that’s always going to be around, but the surroundings and the people around have changed. It has become more diverse, very busy, and almost impossible to find a parking spot since they built a mini shopping mall. But it is the perfect area to attract people because there was always an empty space lying around so people put some good use to it. It’s a pro, but also a con in some ways. But when I think about the health issues around in my neighborhood. I don’t see any of these numbers. (I could be wrong though).

But why hasn’t anything been done about it? It just doesn’t make sense to me. I would understand if there wasn’t much one can do, but these numbers are rising. If it had been a different area, like Tribeca, or any other business area, you wouldn’t see these kinds of numbers. Just like when Hurricane Sandy hit, there were so many neighborhoods that were damaged really bad and we were waiting for it to be fixed and it took so long. While in other higher class neighborhoods, the damaged was cleared and everything was back to normal. There are still neighborhoods waiting to be fixed, even until this day. Hurricane Sandy hit back in 2012, it’s 2016. That’s four years. It shouldn’t have to take four years to fix damaged houses that need major fixing. These are people's homes we're talking about. Places people live, sleep, and eat. People should be able to not only live in a nice house that isn’t damaged, but also a neighborhood.

In cases like these it always comes down to class. The higher the class, the better treatment you get, which is very unfair. Just because people live in a higher class doesn’t mean they don’t live differently. They breathe and eat just like people in other classes. Why should class have to separate everything. This is people’s health, a lot of poor health does clash with how one lives, and where they live. If one lived in a run-down neighborhood with poor treatment and not much to do, their health could be damaged, and not just due to the housing situation, but the whole setting in general.

It only takes one person to help make a change. One person to make others lives better and even theirs.