When you walk down the streets of American cities and towns do you notice folks without a home are male or female more often? The problem of homelessness is particularly heart-wrenching for children. The common wisdom is that the kids are most often with their mom and men make up a majority of the single homeless. After a period of economic melt-down the number of homeless has increased dramatically and this is an issue worth talking about.
The National Coalition for the Homeless is one of the major homeless advocacy groups in the United States, and as it happens they have a fact sheet on who is homeless.
Most studies show that single homeless adults are more likely to be male than female. In 2007, a survey by the U.S. Conference of Mayors found that of the population surveyed 35% of the homeless people who are members of households with children are male while 65% of these people are females. However, 67.5% of the single homeless population is male, and it is this single population that makes up 76% of the homeless populations surveyed (U.S. Conference of Mayors, 2007).
Over at No, Seriously, What About Teh Menz? they made some interesting points about the gender of homelessness:
First, it is necessary to consider aspects of the male gender role that might make men more likely to be homeless: for instance, men’s greater likelihood of being veterans, or the tendency of men to not seek treatment for their mental illnesses and substance abuse. Looking at it without the gender lens risks missing important aspects of gender.
Second, it is necessary not to erase the existence of women who are homeless. Even though men are more likely to be homeless, homelessness is a lot more gender equal than a lot of people present it. The primary causes of homelessness– poverty, lack of affordable housing, unemployment– affect everyone, regardless of gender. A large percentage of the increase in homeless families is probably caused by the recession: unemployment and lack of affordable housing were the two most commonly cited causes of the increase in homeless families.
Don’t like ads? Become a supporter and enjoy The Good Men Project ad freeThird, it is important to note that there may be reasons why women are more likely to be housed than men that still don’t mean the women are in a particularly good situation. For instance, women are more likely to participate in survival sex in exchange for housing. “Survival sex or homelessness,” however, is one of those dilemmas that really leaves no one in a particularly good situation.
What do you think?
image library of congress
Why can men not claim this issue as overwhelmingly ours, without a bit of genuflection toward women’s issues? Have you seen any women helping to reassure men in the media, like I’ve done in this inverted version of what your guest says: “Third, it is important to note that there may be reasons why men are more likely to be housed than women that still don’t mean the women are in a particularly good situation. For instance, men are more likely to participate in survival drug dealing in exchange for housing. ‘Survival drugs or homelessness,’ however, is one of those… Read more »
So women can have “survival sex” to avoid the fate of men, who rarely have that privilege. What’s with the inability of people to admit that there could possibly ever be any advantage to being a women? As a women, I don’t get it. Admit it, and move on to the larger conversation.
I don’t get why people refuse to admit this
It has everything to do with sex. Its easier for a woman to find a man than it is for a man to find a woman who will take him in.
I live in center city Philadelphia, where there are homeless people everywhere. I grew up around homeless people and have learned a lot about them. Whoever wrote this article doesn’t know that homeless men give sexual favors to other men for money.
Men are homeless because no one enforces the ratified version of the Fair Housing Act of 1968 that included sex as a protected class in the 80’s. Meaning shelter, especially a roommate situation is highly unobtainable. Without shelter your loss of job will shortly follow. The 15% of women who are homeless receive almost the entire funding and there are no equal resources for men to draw upon in a time of need. .
More misandry from the press. Hardly surprising.
Tom why is it that you tell a story about male homelessness, then you spin it into “Women are the real victims here”.
Most of the homeless in the US are men because men are patriarchal oppressors of women. Most of the homeless in the US are men because…”privilege”!!!
See, I get annoyed at the attitude that much of this article expresses. Most men are homeless. BUT………And then we proceed to talk about how even when men have it worse, women have it worse. Discussing all of the issues is not a problem. I really don’t mind that. Let’s not discount any group of victims, right? The problem I have is that it is SO OFTEN done when the genders are flipped. When domestic violence is mentioned in class on the topic of feminism, 56% of domestic violence is against women, and suddenly “Men don’t understand” “Men don’t experience… Read more »
The anti feminism expressed here is a backlash from the attitude of some here that it is obvious they cannot accept that men can be victims as well. When the majority of homeless are men it says something. Yet the issue becomes women’s issues to you. There are far more public and private sources to aid women, does anyone find it disturbing that in the Dept. of Health there are divisions for Women & Children yet none for men. In my state there are departments and programs for women and children but not men. Why is the fact that the… Read more »
My my-the level of anti-male BIAS is this article. 76 percent of the homeless population is male…but it’s their fault for not “seeking help for mental illness” or other problems. And god FORBID we should ask ourselves why in my City, for example, there are 4 times as many shelters for “women or women with children” than there are for men…oh no…instead less say “oh but it’s really equal because the causes are the same”. Seriously-if 76 percent of the homeless were WOMEN but we gave 3/4 of all funding to MEN and then blamed the women for their problem… Read more »
Good points all of them.
I am a Mens Rights Activist also. Great site. I have lots of work to do my non profit is at its infacy stage .
We are on a mission though to promote human rights for men . I spent many years as a child in a poor area.
I can honestly say that in my 35 years alive I do not know any men that have have access to living in low income housing in my age group.
Most of the media when presenting stats in the demographics of homelessness go out of their way to avoid reporting the fact that homelessness is gender biased against men in both population and availability of services or societal support.
For example: http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/526/homeless-facts.html
Why is that?
Could part of it be that the system requires silence about the ‘war on men’ so that it can maintain itself through more war and consumerism?
I’ve been homeless for a year once, and from my experience it is overwhelmingly males who make up the population of the homeless. Women received better services, better shelter conditions and options, especially those with children. One of the homeless shelters in the city separated the fathers from their wife and children so the wife and children could live in a hospitable friendly environment while the men were treated like garbage. I guess having fathers be with their family was taboooo. Women in general receive WIC and the other little hundred little services that men don’t. Society wants and promotes… Read more »
I have to write a paper wherein i must critique objective discourse pertaining to homelessness. Does anyone know of some sources that i might use to write this paper that are accurate and recent?
Thank you,
TRY:
http://www.endhomelessness.org/library/entry/the-state-of-homelessness-in-america-2012
http://www.census.gov/mp/www/cat/people_and_households/national_survey_of_homeless_assistance_providers.html
http://www.nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/who.html
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/01/18/10177017-homeless-numbers-down-but-risks-rise?lite
Most stats “embed” male homelessness as part of other ‘policy’ studies looking at child or family homelessness, etc. You’ll likely have to dig to uncover this broken out by gender. Since it’s not PC, there’s not a whole lot of good stats, but much speculation, even as it’s clear this is a male issue.
Good luck
Tom, why are you quoting NSWATM? It just makes you look bad.
Face facts, men are considered to be disposable and very few people go out of their way to help a homeless man. There are also far few government programs to help them on their way.
“it is necessary not to erase the existence of women who are homeless.”
Thtat’s exactly what feminists have been doing for decades on every issue of male victimization.
Divorce and child support are big causes of single male homelessness. I have worked with homeless men for years and have often informally asked them what brought homelessness on. Divorce and child support is at the top of the list for men in their 40s.
I totally agree with this. Do you know of any stats that could verify this?
That’s not at all what I have seen in my experience working with the homeless. The VAST majority of homeless people I have encountered are severely mentally ill. They are not crippled by child support; they simply have no money at all because their diseased brains have made life a muddled nightmare.
then you work in a place where the mentally ill homeless are more likley to run into you then the single fathers forbiden from seeing there children
One tiny sex/gender factor, from the perspective of panhandling: I’ve seen cardboard panhandling signs held by women that ask for help because she’s pregnant. (Generally not showing, so you have to take her word for it.) I’ve never seen a panhandling sign held by a man that says he has a baby on the way. A woman can play the parenthood card more easily than a man can. In the public’s mind, helping homeless women is more associated with helping homeless children. When I look at my own kneejerk reaction to seeing a homeless man versus a homeless woman, I… Read more »
The page refresh on this site is really annoying! Men seldom ask for help because they often know very little of it is available. Why ask for what is known not to be available? When resources are available they are very limited and seldom enough for all – fact is except in extreme cases there are no resources available to men. Men are conditioned to only ask for help when they have exhausted other resources. Help providers need to also factor in that people seeking help; especially men however need to be able to maintain a sense of dignity and… Read more »
The U.S. passed a law in the last few years specifically granting homeless benefits to women vets only (there were less than a few thousand- per the article) despite the fact that there were an estimated million or so homeless male veterans for more than a decade. If women are recognized as such a vulnerable demographic that special benefits are allocated only for them- why in the world would anyone think that these same women veterans could possibly perform on par with male veterans in either combat: or by placing them in the combat arms? The truth of the matter… Read more »
I’ve always suspected that women are more careful and take fewer risks in their careers, relationships, everything that could result in homelessness, and that there are fewer homeless women (sleeping on the street at least) because women are terrified of sleeping on the street (more terrified than men) because of the higher risk of both sexual assault, or simple violence by a stronger person. I’m not saying this is the only reason, I just think it contributes. I know from walking down the street at night that as it gets later, you see fewer and fewer women walking alone, but… Read more »
” that there are fewer homeless women (sleeping on the street at least) because women are terrified of sleeping on the street (more terrified than men) because of the higher risk of both sexual assault, or simple violence by a stronger person.”
There is no evidence that homeless women are at greater risk for physical assault and any evidence they are at greater risk for sexual assault has to be considered in light of the fact that men report sexual assault often at a fraction the rate of women.
ive been homeless i know homeless ben and women. homeless people male or female who sleep on the street do not sleep by themselves unless they are deemed crazy or freaks by other homeless people, and you just try and rape a homlesss girl she cut your dick off and force feed it to you, and even if you do manage to suprise her shell come back and find you latter and introduce your head to pad lock or a curb, she will be alone she wont need back up but her friends will insist on joining her despite her… Read more »
I live in a downtown area where the homeless in my city congregate. I see the homeless most days. I am always surprised to see women who I can clearly identify as homeless. The men, that’s just business as usual. There’s something disturbing to me about the way I perceive the homeless differently by their gender. The fact that I see it that way is telling.
I don’t have stats on this, but my impression is that women have a little more access to homeless shelters, either as shelters for women escaping domestic violence or as homeless people with children. I found the second quote to be a bit odd. Its second point does not really address the question, just says that, well, it’s probably more equal than you think. There is something to the argument that men and women tend to make different choices in life – seeking help or not, taking risks or not, focusing on financial security or not, etc. But, the second… Read more »
Your statistics are wrong here. When counting sheltred homeless, 67% are male. But when you count UNSHELTERED homeless (these are the people who really sleep on the streets), the number is 91%. Google “point in time” to see these statistics.
The point in time counts of unsheltered homeless are made in mid january, to artificially deflate the numbers (the weather is at its coldest, and homeless men will do virtually anything to find shelter). Tis is the primary way in which our society addresses true homelessness — count them in January, because it makes the numbers look less bad.
Various shelters for homeless women and their children have been started in this country. One woman told me that at the “mainstream” shelter, she was shocked to find that women were expected to be housekeepers but men were not. She was stunned at the sexist double standards.
Whats your point? Sure it’s a double standard, and that sucks (although I wonder if the men were expected to do yardwork/repairs/anything like that) but it’s completely irrelevant to the topic. Unless you’d care to clarify as to how this relates to whether men are truly the majority of homeless people or not?
Your take away from this article is that women still are discriminated against because even though they have the majority if not all the homeless shelters they have to sweep the floor!
I think they are good points Tom. Key points in looking at how men respond to issues. Such as men being less willing to ask for help for seeing it as a weakness or being less likely to acknowledge a physical/mental concern. If we start talking about those things then maybe more men won’t feel ashamed for acknowledging they have a problem and need help. I also bet that a lot of homeless women might have a place they can stay, not just in exchange for sexual favors, with family or friends then a man might have the option to… Read more »
Victim-blaiming.
good point about women having places with family to stay Erin-good point
I know a woman who told me that she gave a man a handy-jay in a hot tub just so she could have a place to stay.
im a man and ive don for worse for a place to stay
there are more men then women at aa and na meetings so… its unlikely that this failure of men to ask for help cause the patriarchy stuff is legitmate
Firstly I am having a very hard time believing those stats. They look dodgey and slanted towards trying to minimise male victims. Secondly I love the way the feminists on that site that is supposed to be specifically for men’s issues more immediately blamed the victim for men’s homelessness. Why are men homeless? It’s their own fault they said. And then they said we really need to talk about how much worse women have it than men (of course). Then they talk about how victimised women are for NOT being homeless. One of the reasons feminists have to be very… Read more »
I am sick of the feminist-bashing on this site.
I’m sick of the man-bashing in feminism. 🙂
Marie, I hear you! It’s difficult to be a feminist – an ally of women AND men – and be subject to this sort of sentiment so frequently.
We told you why a lot of us don’t trust feminists. We even showed you examples of how mainstream feminist political groups have used their influence to curtail assistance to men (unless you don’t believe NOW is a “real” feminist organization?) You chose to ignore us with what was, essentially, a “no true scotsman” fallacy.
I know women are used to being trusted automatically, but thats a privilege you’re going to have to give up. Want us to believe you’re really an ally? Show. Don’t tell.
It’s no more (and really, a lot less,) than what feminists expect of men.
omg can you hear yourself. its difficult to be a femisnt im sure the oldyear old homless guy who was beat by his father who came home from veitnam with ptsd and started using crack to deal with the abuse and broken psycology and spent decades in jail before being released on to the streets had his sleeping bag stolen 4 times in the last month shares your pain and has complete empathy for how difficult being a feminist is
I am also sick of the feminist-bashing on this site.
safespace dot com
This site is supposed to be a safe haven where we can talk about the male experience and men’s issues without constantly having the “but……women” at the end of every issue. I agree it isn’t the most productive to constantly pin it on that particular movement. But basically every site or article that actively identifies as “feminist” will take this form. I agree, not all feminists are like that. But you also have to agree, most of the time the statistics are recolored in this way, it’s by a feminist. So when guys on this site see something that is… Read more »
cry.
try safespace dot com