More than half of Cleveland kids live in poverty, and it's making them sick
Source: Cleveland.com
September 30, 2014 at 12:00 PM
CLEVELAND, Ohio—Census data released last week revealed a sobering truth about the conditions that face children growing up in Cleveland: more than half of the city's kids—54 percent-- live in poverty, the second highest rate of any big city nationally.
As bad as that sounds, what's worse is what it means: not only does poverty make it more difficult to secure stable, safe housing, nutritious food and quality, affordable daycare so that parents can work, but the daily stress kids endure under these conditions takes a huge toll on their mental and physical health, experts say.
The kids pay this toll—in the form of asthma, diabetes, behavioral problems, truancy and failure in school. We pay it too, in higher healthcare costs as they become sicker adults, in the cost of incarceration for juvenile and then adult offenders, and in the lost productivity that results when such a large number of children cannot achieve.
Some studies estimate that cost at roughly half a trillion dollars, or 3.8 percent of our nation's gross domestic product (GDP), a year.
Read more: http://www.cleveland.com/healthfit/index.ssf/2014/09/more_than_half_of_cleveland_ki.html#incart_m-rpt-1
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