Neighborhood dreams, Statehouse realities

photo by Steven Van Elk, Unsplash

Hailey Butchart and Abbey Chambers 

Rarely are kids’ perspectives included in public policymaking. We adults, however, should not ignore the fact that our kids, like us, experience the world in unique ways and have insights on what they would like to see in the places where they live. Their insights can be instructive, too. 

When a group of six-to-11-year-old students at a near northwest Indianapolis elementary school were asked what they dreamed of for their neighborhoods, streets, and homes, they gave some compelling responses, which speak to the effectiveness of public policy in our state: 

I wish people could recycle at their house.

I want a park close by me, maybe more swings, even. 

The only slide to play on is broken. We still play on it, but I want another one, in my dreams. 

I wish they could fix the street. There are many holes in my street. 

My sidewalk is broken. I can’t ride my bike because it’s so bumpy. 

When I’m practicing my bicycle, the holes make me fall off. 

I want a safe street. I don’t want my family to get hit. 

Clean the sidewalks, please. 

A lot of the trash on the sidewalks everywhere. 

All the trash in my neighborhood is killing what I tried to plant. 

I wish there were no dogs at my bus stop. 

I wish for a dog. My other one got stolen. 

I would like to help the stray dogs, but they are usually mean to me. I wish they would be nicer to me, but they are probably just hungry 

I’d like more food at my house. 

My house is really small. There are five people and two bedrooms. 

There are seven people with three bedrooms. It’s crowded.

I have 10 people in my house and they’re all men. It’s hard sometimes. 

I have to sleep on the couch now because my uncle had to move in and use my room now. 

I want beds for everyone in my house. 

I wish for a bed for my baby sister. She’s 8 months old and she keeps falling off the thing she sleeps on now [the couch]. 

My little brother doesn’t have a safe place to play or crawl. Inside or outside. 

I wish I had better stairs or a ramp so my grandma could come visit. 

I wish there were no more bugs in my house. 

I don’t want any more roaches crawling up my walls. 

I need two cats to kill the big rat in the kitchen. 

We have a rat infestation. 

I wish my backdoor had a lock. 

I would like toys and a place to keep them too! 

As a society, we can—and should—interpret this collection of comments as a damning critique of the type of world we have built for some kids and their families. The students’ comments describe the world as a place where spaces inside homes are no cleaner, safer, or more peaceful than city streets. The concerns they express about their homes and neighborhoods are grown-up concerns—the kinds of things parents worry about. 

Just as we adults carry our deepest, most unshakeable concerns with us every day, everywhere we go—to work, to appointments, to the store—so too do our kids carry their worries with them. Kids in struggling families and communities go to school hungry, tired, and stressed because of the disparities and conditions they face in their homes and neighborhoods daily. Their experiences can make it difficult for them to meet behavioral and academic expectations, and thus their futures may be riddled with more barriers and hurdles than the futures of their peers who do not carry such daily worries. 

The conditions the students describe have root causes. They are the outcomes of many decades’ worth of Indiana laws that have asymmetrically structured the state’s economy and inequitably distributed resources, and these disparities continue today. For example, Indiana public policy does not mandate employers to pay livable wages or landlords to maintain quality housing, nor does it equitably distribute public resources to communities to ensure everyone lives in an environment that is clean, safe, and well-maintained. The disparities are plainly visible when traveling around the state, from bustling downtowns, to aging and neglected urban neighborhoods, to prosperous and growing suburbs, to shrinking rural towns on the verge of blowing away. When many of our lawmakers say they are working for all Hoosiers, it is difficult to believe their words are genuine; if they were truly working for all Hoosiers, we would not have families living in pest-infested, dilapidated homes, and the sidewalks and streets in their neighborhoods would be smooth enough for kids to ride their bikes on them.

What would it take to make our kids’ dreams of healthy homes and communities come true?

Political will, for one thing. Our state’s public policies do not protect and invest in all Hoosiers. All Hoosier workers need wages that will provide the financial stability needed to care for themselves and their families. Whether they rent or own, all Hoosier families need access to homes that are affordable and suitable in quality and size to accommodate their families’ needs. Finally, all Hoosiers deserve to live in communities that receive equitable amounts of public resources to keep public spaces adequately cleaned and maintained. 

To address these disparities, we need legislators at all levels of government to realize that their primary role is not to pander to private interests, ensure that businesses can maximize profits, or pave the way for developers to build whatever they want, wherever they want, public health and the environment be damned. We need legislators that understand that their primary role is to create policies that ensure that all people have a stable foundation upon which they can build good lives for themselves and their children, cultivate their talents and passions, and contribute to strengthening their communities. Instead of letting the private sector legislate our state, our state legislators need to use their political savvy and the tools they have at their disposal to get private interests on board with the goal of providing this healthy, stable foundation for Hoosier families and communities. 

Furthermore, ensuring that all families live in healthy, stable homes and communities requires an active voter base that understands the importance of caring for those among us who struggle the most. Hoosier voters need to convey this understanding loudly and clearly by electing local, state, and federal representatives that prioritize children and families not only in what they say, but also, and more importantly, what they do and the policies they create and support. Hoosier voters also need to write to and call their elected and appointed officials and advocate in public and private spaces for better policies and practices that equitably protect and invest in Hoosier families and communities. 

All people have the same basic needs, and we all dream of living lives that are good, comfortable, and fulfilling, the rewards of our hard work. We imagine that our society is progressing, becoming more inclusive and equitable. Maybe it is, but, clearly, and in the eyes of some of our kids, there is still plenty of work to do, and much of it starts with better public policy. 

Hailey Butchart is a social worker at Global Preparatory Academy at Riverside #44 in the Near Northwest side of Indianapolis. 

Abbey Chambers is a consultant and researcher who studies socioeconomic inequities and exclusions in economic development and policymaking.