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A few times a week I will be copying a chapter out of the Reference Book of Men's Issues for visibility and discussion here. I may make minor changes or additions. Today's chapter is short. There may be new chapters and updates created during this time period.

Every chapter starts with an overview and then follows up with examples and evidence.

Section 2: Life, Death, and Safety

Chapter 2: Homelessness

Overview

Men consistently make up a majority of the homeless population. They're especially common among the long-term homeless, the homeless living on the street (instead of a shelter) [1], and the homeless deaths. Despite this, there is less eagerness to support homeless men [2].

Approximately 70 per cent of Canada’s homeless are male. Dion Oxford of Toronto’s Salvation Army Gateway shelter for men tells us it is harder to raise funds for men’s shelters. “Single, middle-aged homeless men are simply not sexy for the funder,” he says.

This is likely related to male disposability. This can also be seen in an article from the British newspaper The Independent on the “growing problem” of homelessess among women [3]. The author calls it “distressing” that 1/4 homeless people in shelters and 1/10 homeless people on the street are women.

Examples/evidence:

One study conducted in New York City and Philadelphia found that those who are chronically homeless are overwhelmingly male (and black). 82.3% were male in New York City, and 71.1% were male in Philadelphia [4]. UK homeless charity St Mungo's Broadway found that men made up 87% of rough sleepers in London (those on the street instead of in shelters) [5]. Another UK homeless charity provides a break-down of homeless deaths by age and gender on page ix [6].

Image: By age and sex

For more, compare the number of instances of "John Doe" to "Jane Doe" in the Toronto Homeless Memorial (it's currently 331 to 81) [7].

One survey of homeless people in the United States found that homeless men were less likely to have access to health insurance and government benefits [8].

[1] (dead link) http://bit.ly/1wQy1zt (coursepage for Sociology 498G at the University of Maryland)

[2] (new link) (Globe and Mail article “Should universities be opening men’s centres?”)

[3] (new link) (The Independent article “Homeless and broken: how women are catching up with men”)

[4] (new link) (2011, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration document "Current Statistics on the Prevalence and Characteristics of People Experiencing Homelessness in the United States")

[5] (new link) (St Mungo's Broadway “Street to Home Bulletin 2013/14” report)

[6] (new link) (2012, document on mortality among homeless people from Crisis, a UK charity for the homeless)

[7] (new link) (Toronto Homeless Memorial's list of deaths from homelessness)

[8] (new link) (Healing Hands article "Single Males: The Homeless Majority")

Changes: Many links are outdated URL shorteners, so I've found the source material where I could, and provide direct link for the ones not expired yet. I cleaned it up so the URL is behind the description, too. I updated the Toronto Homeless Memorial numbers.