Community Needs Adequate Housing

Why do I want to assist my community in obtaining safe, decent, and affordable housing? Because safe, decent, and affordable housing will help empower communities and promote a healthy living environment. When I was a child, the community in which I lived played a strong role in my development and provided a strong foundation for nurturing. My community taught me to be kind to others, to respect my fellow man, to care about my neighbors, and to always be willing to lend a helping hand to those who may be less fortunate. It was the breed of community where everyone knew every person and contributed to the upbringing of each one who lived there. My friends lived near and we each attended the neighborhood school, shopped at the neighborhood store and worshipped in the neighborhood church. Each of these elements fostered a strong sense of unity. This environment produced a tightly knit community that contributed to society instead of taking. This was an environment in which everyone flourished, child and adult alike.

In today’s neighborhoods, no one talks to each other. We rarely hear the word “community” used when describing our neighborhoods, and isolation is the pursuit of everyone living in the area. The neighborhoods have deteriorated to the point of fear for safety, and “in Metropolitan Atlanta today, …homelessness is an issue” (United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta, 2005). Communities of my past are almost non-existent, except possibly in the far-reaching suburbs, and I am compelled to give back by helping the setting my childhood community return and not settle for what exist today.

In my opinion, a major contributory factor to today’s living environment is inadequate housing. Adequate housing is suitable, safe, affordable housing. Proper housing is a key component in revitalizing our neighborhoods and “the single most powerful tool a family can use to improve their quality of life” (Bush, 2002, p. 1). Homeownership provides a sense of community belonging. It “[…] strengthens and stabilizes neighborhoods while building a sense of community.” (Bush, 2002, p. 1) By providing aid toward home ownership, I will help revitalize the community and add to the quality of life, thus, “killing two birds with one stone.”

Homeownership gives community roots. When an individual owns his or her own home (instead of renting), he or she is more interested in how the community looks, safety in the area, and even the neighbors. Renting lends to the feeling of temporary resident, but ownership gives a feeling of permanence and stability.

[…]a man who owns his own home acquires with it a new dignity. He begins to take pride in what is