Social Determinants Of Health

Housing is one of the most important elements of the society. A healthy society always needs to have healthy housing for the people of their community. Housing has always been a topic of interest to me. Previously to being an ECE student, I graduated the Social Service Worker program from St. Lawrence College in Kingston. After graduating the SSW program, I worked in a soup kitchen that served food to the homeless population of Kingston. Each shift that I worked, the topic of housing was conversed at least twice in four hours. I worked with families, single mothers, and a large population of men with mental illnesses. These people always spoke about being on the housing list and how long they have been on it. They were eager to have a place
Inadequate and poor housing can lead to the risk of having severe health concerns. As stated in the Social Determinants of Health article, living in poor housing conditions can generate stress, which leads individuals to unhealthy coping mechanisms such as substance abuse. Children who live in such poor standard living conditions can face health problems. These health problems can become long-term and last until maturity phase of their life. From the Social Determinants of Health article, 42% of Torontonians are spending more than 30% of their income on housing. 20% of those individuals are paying more than 50% of their income on rent, which is putting them at immediate risk of homelessness. The homeless population of Toronto faces more physical health problems as well as mental heath problems than the general population. It is stated Social Determinants of Health, “Early death among homeless people is 8-10 times greater than the general population” (Toba Bryant, 2009). Getting a full time job is extremely difficult and challenging in Toronto whether you
Ontario Human Rights Commission states that every Canadian has the right to obtain adequate shelter. Although each Canadian has the right to a bed, a roof over their head, and a place to secure their belongings, this is not happening. It seems as though the Canadian government is not taking actions or extra efforts to improve this situation. As explained in the CBC news article, Justin Trudeau, Liberal Party leader of Canada promised that he would resolve the housing crisis by renovating old subsidized housing units, as well as by building more geared-to-income housing. No actions have been taken yet and the budget appears to be very low to initiate this housing project as is says in the Ontario Budget 2016 article. From the CBC article, there are over 350 houses that have been boarded up in Toronto this year because the Toronto Community Housing Corporation has no money to renovate them. Over 7500 units are being threatened to close down by 2023 if they are not fixed or replaced. There are another 4000 units that are in critical condition and there is no money to renovate or repair these units either. “Canada is routinely identified by international authorities as not fulfilling these commitments” (Toba, Bryant, 2009). By reading the