The oft repeated factoid "men are 9X% of the homeless" is inaccurate (W. Farrell states that he uses methodologies he learned working with feminism, so grain of salt), but its safe to say that men make up the majority of the homeless and unsheltered homeless. Anyone got better data?

EpicJ · 2012-08-17T14:25:12+00:00

It's difficult to collect data because of the situations that count as homeless

Hach8 · 2012-08-17T15:51:07+00:00

Here's a Pubmed Article / Abstract. The study looks at 600 males and 300 females, and notes that females are universally the primary recipients of care and support programs, while men are not likely to have support programs specifically for them (in part because a large portion of the male homelessness is due to felony convictions).

Here are some homeless statistics from the National Coalition for the Homeless Noting that among single homeless, males make up 67.5%, more than 2/3 of the homeless. Also note that single homeless people make up 75% of the total homeless population.

Here is another fact sheet which backs up these numbers and looks to be the source of 67.5%, though they give a range of 67.5-80% meaning the 67.5% seems to be a "low ball" estimate. Here is the source of that information. Note that this citation actually lists male homelessness at 77% of single homeless, and in the total homeless demographic list men as 68%.

Also, combine it with the previous research to note that the smaller but substantial portion of female homeless are more likely to receive problem-specific support and more likely to be sheltered.

zdenekn · 2012-08-17T15:34:16+00:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpson%27s_paradox It's entirely possible, depending on how you partition data, to get the statistics you want to show. AFAIK, gender studies departments will aggregate data to paint a narrative of oppression, whether it's in DV statistics, wage disparities, or educational achievement. From a scientific standpoint, this is intellectual dishonesty. Statistics are powerful because when experimental evidence isn't available that establishes causal relationships, they are the next best heuristic in informing public policy.

This is a prime example of what happens when assholes manipulate statistics to try and get their way: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/187/4175/398.abstract

DavidByron · 2012-08-17T17:10:54+00:00

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altmehere · 2012-08-17T15:03:12+00:00

Unfortunately, I haven't found any really good data. Many of the reports I find correlate sheltered and unsheltered with age and race but not with sex.

I did find one that does for a specific area (Portland/Multnomah) and the result is pretty much what I expected: males are vastly overrepresented among the unsheltered homeless. While about 25% of the homeless females were unsheltered, about 44% of the males were unsheltered. In raw numbers, that's 1,261 males (out of 2,890 total) and 422 females (out of 1,713).

EDIT: males are also vastly underrepresented in transitional housing (rather than unsheltered or in emergency shelter). About 34% of the homeless males compared to 54 percent of the homeless females.

tl;dr: males are vastly overrepresented among the unsheltered and vastly underrepresented among those in transitional housing in Portland/Multnomah.

rightsbot · 2012-08-17T14:08:17+00:00

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2012-08-17T14:46:28+00:00

http://www.bsos.umd.edu/socy/vanneman/socy498/gendertype.html

Shockndrop · 2012-08-17T23:09:56+00:00

Being someone who was homeless for 7 months and lived in a shelter, I can say that there seemed to be at least an 8:1 ratio of men to women who were homeless in that area of the country.

ENTP · 2012-08-17T17:02:46+00:00

The majority of homeless persons are male. (roughly 60%)

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).

So: (.76)(.675) + (.35)(.24) = 0.597, or 59.7% which is roughly 60%, which means there are 20% more homeless men than women.

Other stats I've seen, show that 74% of respondents to a homelessness survey were male, in 2008 (although it's framed, for some reason, in terms of female respondents)

MartialWay · 2012-08-18T00:41:00+00:00

The problem with calculating female "homeless" with children is that they're quite frequently being put up in a hotel with room service (not a joke) or having some other housing accomodation that isn't very "homeless" at all.

stillSmotPoker1 · 2012-08-17T15:50:27+00:00

I know personally of this homeless couple that were living in a tent under a bridge and some guys offered the girl a place but the guy is still under the bridge while the girl is screwing for room and board. In the winter time the girl has the better life even though she has to put out to have room and board. So which one is truly homeless?

DavidByron · 2012-08-17T18:07:34+00:00

It's oft repeated ironically citing Farrell as a source, who in turn was quoting reliable data but stuff that was from the 1970s when his book was published. More recently because of the way the elites have been fucking everyone over, and especially in just the last few years there's been a lot of people become homeless that don't fit the usual profiles.

More women yes, but also more families and more young people.

You can thank the Bush-Obama economy for this partial leveling.

Grayflowergirl · 2012-08-17T23:46:16+00:00

Many cities/counties have developed plans to deal with homelessness, as a requirement to receive federal/state Housing and Urban Development (HUD) money. In these plans, they have to define what they mean by "homeless", (generally reflects the HUD definition), and get a reasonable count of the people they are dealing with. So, while the information in these plans is limited geographically, it does exist.

For example, in Orange County, CA, approximately 83-84% of homeless people are men. http://egov.ocgov.com/vgnfiles/ocgov/OCCS%20-%20Housing/Docs/10YrPlan_Homeless_Prevention.pdf

nanonan · 2012-08-17T18:13:38+00:00

I ony have anecdotal data, but I'd say it is roughly accurate in my town.

Majiir · 2012-08-17T18:50:34+00:00

Don't fall into the same trap as feminists. It would surprise me if the majority of the homeless were women just as it would surprise me if the majority of CEOs were women. This isn't about socioeconomic pressures, either; it's biological. (Higher rate of mutation in men, which manifests in some interesting ways.)

If we make the leap that homeless men = oppression, then we're doing the exact same thing as feminists who say CEO men = oppression. Now, homeless men may well be mistreated, and there may well be other factors which drive more men to be homeless, but we should be incredibly careful to avoid jumping to conclusions based on gender representation alone.

MyWorkUsername2012 · 2012-08-17T17:05:16+00:00

Why do we care what Will Farrell says about homeless statistics?

Shitbagsoldier · 2012-08-18T02:38:20+00:00

But aren't men homeless primarily because they are lazy or addicted, while women who are homeless are the victims of mental illness, financial misfortune (caused by the gender wage gap) or survivors of domestic violence (committed by men)?

edit: I thought what I wrote was so outrageous the /s was not needed.

altmehere · 2012-08-17T19:01:25+00:00

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