Why are homeless people mostly men?

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Men apparently get paid more than women, yet they are more likely to be homeless than women.

There are a few reasons for this.Men are less likely to seek or accept help. Many cities offer free housing to long time homeless residents, but it's difficult to get these men to agree to accept the housing, and some have been on the streets so long that they do not feel comfortable enclosed in a building. One housing development reported that some men would pitch tents in their living room and live in the tent for a number of months before they came to accept the apartment was their own to live in.

Homeless men, more often than homeless women, struggle with authority. They do not want to conform to the rules of local homeless shelters, and prefer their freedom.

Many men do not feel safe in shelters full of other men, who may be recently released from jail, suffering from mental illness, or addictions that make them violent.

Women, on the other hand, are more likely to seek help when they need it. They have more incentive to get off the streets because they are 10 times more likely to be attacked than homeless man, and women's shelters are less likely to house dangerous individuals.

Other things that might be factors are, homeless women are more likely to be preyed on by pimps and become victims of sex traffickers, and schizophrenia, which many homeless individuals suffer from, onsets later in females than males. In males, schizophrenia often onsets in the teens, before they have become established individuals, and rob them of their chance of every getting on their feet in life. In females, schizophrenia more often onsets in the mid to late 20's, and so she is more likely to be married or have an established profession, and so less likely to end up on the streets than her male counterpart.

Males are biologically the expendable sex.

A lot of homeless shelters and housing programs only accept women, or only accept parents with children (who are generally women). The same is true of many government and church programs to support the poor, at least in the US.

Biologically but not socially or emotionally. The help is there for many of these men, but it's difficult to get these men to accept it.

It's true that a lot of shelters are sex segregated and there are probably more shelters for women because many domestic violence shelters, unfortunately, only take women, which is something that should be changed, but I do not think many of the homeless men are battered spouses who have nowhere to go. I think most of them are mentally ill, or drug addicts, on the spectrum, or former inmates, and many of these men refuse to go to shelters because shelters only offer shelter, and not personal space, which is important to many of these men. Shelters also often have rules, and unsavory individuals.

For the most part, society considers men who are homeless to be lazy, no-good, drunk, drug-addled psychopathic motherf!ckers who don't deserve to live, regardless of the type of disability.

Some further points not mentioned:
-Women are more likely to raise the kids, so more likely to receive welfare assistance than men.
-Men are more risk takers , so more likely to lose it all.
-Male pride/ego likely makes swallowing his pride harder.
-Medical studies show men are much less likely to go a doctor, so for some men that ends badly.

Translation: If men are homeless, it's their own fault.

Shelters offer very little help...

A homeless person staying in a shelter is still homeless. They still have nowhere to go during the day (most shelters require residents to leave early in the morning and not come back until night), they still have to find food, they still very limited access to ID, banks, and other services needed to participate in the economy.

Serious housing programs are far, far harder to get into. In my city, the wait time for publicly assisted housing is around 5 years. And that's for people who qualify, have no criminal background, pass drug tests, etc.. Anyone facing addiction or mental illness is expected to cure themselves before they can receive help.

So no, the help is not there, even for people who ask. Unless you have children with you (and even then only a little help).

Well, if we look at variables at the individual level, we find the following gender differences (based on US data):

1. Men are more likely than women not to complete an education.

Example: In the US, the high school dropout rate was 14.2 percent for men and 14.3 percent for women in 1974.
40 years later in 2014, it was 7.1 percent for men and 5.9 percent for women. So even though dropout rates have decreased for both men and women, men are relatively more likely ((20 percent more) to drop out of high school than women.

Source: https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d15 ... 219.70.asp

And there are probably fewer opportunities for gainful employment for high school drop-outs in the US in 2014 than in 1974...

2. Men are more likely than women to commit crime.

Example: In 2014, men committed 73.3 percent of all crimes in the US based on FBI definitions.

Source:
https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d15 ... 219.70.asp

In fact, the only crime committed with greater frequency by women in the US is prostitution - which is legal in some other countries and in one US state (Nevada), BTW.

Furthermore, men are even more overrepresented wrt. violent crimes (approx. 80 percent).

3. Men are more likely than women to develop a substance abuse problem.

Example: For those who have been exposed to drugs, men are more likely to develop substance abuse than women wrt.:

- Alcohol (2.95 times more likely)
- Sedatives (2 times more likely)
- Cannabis (1.93 times more likely)
- Tranquilizers (1.64 times more likely)
- Opioids (1.54 times more likely)
- Hallucinogens (1.31 times more likely)
- Cocaine (1.26 times more likely)

Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23398220

These 3 factors are all predictors of subsequent homelessness - either directly or indirectly.

Some examples:
http://questgarden.com/125/67/7/1104291 ... ssness.pdf
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Le ... 000000.pdf
http://ps.psychiatryonline.org/doi/pdf/ ... 8.59.2.170

However, this is an incomplete explanation... as it simply begets a new set of questions...

- Why are men more likely than women not to complete an education?
- Why are men more likely than women to commit crime?
- Why are men more likely than women to develop substance abuse problems?

Anyone care to answer these?

Furthermore, as mentioned by previous posters, there are also more services for women who are at risk of homelessness - because women are (1) more likely to actually seek out these services than men and because (2) there are more services tailored to the needs of women.

This difference may be less pronounced in countries with more elaborate social safety nets than the US. However, I live in Denmark, which has extensive welfare services, and homelessness in Denmark is even more male-skewed (approx. 80 percent) than in the US (approx. 60 percent - see below).

One of the reasons for this difference may be that most homeless people in Denmark are single, while family homelessness (which would often include both male and female individuals) is more prevalent in the US, which would complicate comparisons.

Finally, an overview of the composition of US homelessness from 2015:



Source: (see page 9)
https://www.hudexchange.info/resources/ ... Part-1.pdf

I think many of you have overlooked a BIG problem in the U.S. (and other countries, I'd imagine).

That is: A very large percentage of the homeless in our area, are composed of ex-Army/Marines/Etc. who are now sick (or broke) and have to live on the streets. This may be the reason for the disparity in men/women numbers.

This is the visible example of how our government/country treats it's wounded and sick veterans.

It's hard to say which old (or young) derelict is ill, a wino, or a shattered soldier but I'd say, in our area, it might be as high as 25% of males. Perhaps, as more women are encouraged to join armed services, we'll also be seeing more shattered women as well.

Here are some facts:

1. In a divorce, a judge is more likely to award custody of the children to the woman than to the man, and thereby set cause as to why the woman should also receive the full share of their jointly-owned domicile, and as much as half of the man's wages in child and spousal support. Suddenly, the man has no home, no family, and very little means to pay off his legal expenses and pay for a place to live.

2. Men have a greater likelihood of being veterans, with the tendency to have acquired some form of PTSD or "Combat Fatigue", thus making them virtually unemployable. Also, when a man is discharged on "Less Then Honorable" terms, employers are likely to turn him away and hire someone with an Honorable Discharge. Also, there is the general tendency to perceive military veterans as brainwashed, gun-crazy murderers.

3. There is the tendency of men to not seek treatment for their mental illnesses and substance abuse issues. Whether this is because of the traditional male attitude of "Toughing it out" or "Handling it", and the perception that asking for help makes them look weak, this leads to a downward spiral of erratic behavior that gets them fired and leaves them chronically unemployed.

4. Women are more likely to be housed than men. This is especially true for women with children, and/or abused women. There seems to be a larger number of shelters and services for women in trouble than for men. This may be due to the perception that women are the victims in domestic disputes, whether or not that perception is valid in every case.

Because ....of hypergamy.

A woman is far less likely to marry an unemployed man and shelter him, let alone a homeless man - while a man may marry an unemployed woman and maybe even a homeless woman.

I think that's the most main cause but it's the least they talk about because it's too non-PC.


Also, some homeless women end up forced into prostitution.

<--- Lives on the street because he's garden variety crazy. Did write a book on surviving homeless, though. It's called "You Can't Sleep Here."

https://www.amazon.com/You-Cant-Sleep-H ... sleep+here

Only in species where fathering has no impact on the offspring.