Children and families in poverty in Wales are continuing to live in unhealthy homes and it is having a negative impact on their health, development, education, well-being and life chances. Through continued engagement with stakeholders and informed by lived experience, Public Health Wales has outlined four enabling priorities to shape a healthier housing future for Wales.
A new report from Public Health Wales – A place to thrive: creating healthier homes for children and families in poverty across Wales - highlights the lived experience of people whose homes are affecting their health and well-being.
Public Health Wales says that the engagement with families, along with stakeholders in the sector, has helped to identify and refine four areas for action to help shape a healthier future for housing in Wales. These areas are to:
Embed health and well-being in a Welsh Housing and Regeneration Strategy
Involve those affected by housing policy in its development, especially families living in poverty
Work across sectors and share data to provide joined-up support and focus on prevention
Learn from the application of Health Impact Assessments (HIAs)
Housing is one of the fundamental building blocks for a healthy life, and all aspects of our homes and where we live affect our physical and mental health and well-being. When children and families are living in homes that are cold, damp, and overcrowded, for example, or that are straining family finances, we see harms to health such as breathing problems, stress, and more illnesses.
Within the priority areas above, Public Health Wales identified practical solutions that policymakers, stakeholders and partners across sectors can put in place to improve housing for children and families in poverty.
These include increasing the availability of healthy and affordable homes, especially social housing, raising standards in private rental housing and prioritising early intervention and prevention in the sector by working with families and communities to design place-based integrated services.
“Traumatising”, “overcrowded” and “embarrassing” were some of the words one participant used to describe their family’s housing situation. After becoming homeless when their landlord sold their house, the participant and their family were placed in temporary hotel accommodation. Living together in a single room had a serious impact on the family’s wellbeing. They said their children became “very withdrawn and depressed”, and that their schoolwork was “lacking” because of the difficulties of living in cramped conditions. Their partner also experienced two mental breakdowns during their time in temporary accommodation.
Another individual talked about impact on their families’ physical health, which included recurrent damp and mould that meant that her nine-year old son, who has a heart condition, was repeatedly becoming unwell: “As quick as he’d finish one course of medicine, it’d be another”. Despite repairs to the house, she says that mould and damp come “straight back”, and that it is “around windows, the ceiling, coming through the walls”. Another of her children has had to have an asthma inhaler, which is particularly needed through the winter months.
Dr Joe Rees, Senior Policy Officer at Public Health Wales: stated “We know that the Welsh public support actions to improve housing and for affordable, secure, and good quality homes to be available for everyone.
“This report highlights the daily reality of families facing the health harms that come from poor housing. By bringing these to the fore, alongside insights from organisations involved in housing in Wales, we have identified clear and shared priorities that shows how we can build a future where the potential for our homes to protect and improve the health of everyone in Wales is realised.”
The report can be found here.