THE SCANDAL OF INSTITUTIONAL DISCRIMINATION AGAINST HOMELESS MEN

One kind reader sent over a report by St Mungo's homeless charity called Battered Broken Bereft.

Homelessness is not an issue covered much on this site but at Christmas it seems apposite.

A few core figures stands out. Firstly that 81% of homeless clients of the charity are men and the biggest reason that men are homeless is due to relationship breakdown (42%). The report highlights that 35% of women who are made homeless due to domestic abuse and it would be interesting to see what the figure was for men.

What it revealed though on the relationship breakdown issue was to highlight another clear area of institutional discrimination against men.

Page 8 of the report states:

"Many men had waited until they were in desperate need before they approached the local authority. They had all approached housing advisors when they had no one else to turn to. Instead of getting the help they needed they were more often subject to petty wrangling by local authorities over who should take responsibility for them.

"The advice and support they did receive was more often to be given a list of telephone numbers, some of which were obsolete and some which were always engaged."

Can you seriously imagine the same situation for a woman - there would be a scandal. But here we have the equally scandalous situation but this time involving men. All we get are petty wranglings from councils not caring a jot because the person in front of them is a man.

Another example of the institutional discrimination that men face - made worse when dealing with the most vulnerable, like these men, in our society. We hope St Mungo's having identified this issue, now take it forward.

Posted by Skimmington     

Comments

[Ullere]

Hey I found this blog to reddits MenRights. I'm glad I did, good to see someone in the UK talking about male issues. Homeless people are some 15 times more likely to be the victim of a violent assault than those with a home, from http://www.bradfordvts.co.uk/ONLINERESOURCES/05.%20PROMOTING%20HEALTH%20AND%20PREVENTING%20DISEASE%20incl%20poverty%20and%20social%20medicine/homelessness%20statistics.pdf

'Overall, rough sleepers appear to be up to 15 times more likely to experience
assault than the general population and 35 times more likely to be a victim of
wounding'

And men make up the vast majority of the unsheltered, it is a terrible thing to ignore the suffering of the homeless. Yet all that the st mungo's study mentions in that 35% of homeless women are there because of domestic violence, never mind that homeless men suffer violence at 15 times the national rate.

[Groan]

The operation of housing policy effectively excludes men by putting them right at the end of the list for public help. The Salvation Army and other charities do sterling work in this area. In effect the public policy is "women and children first". This has a particular effect on men with children, few resources available and young men typically ejected from step families or slightly older homeless due to "relationship breakdown". Personally I'm not suggesting that the most vulnerable shouldn't get a priority but it isn't equality and an example of how women benefit more from public assistance. I hope readers will spare a few pounds for a homeless charity. Our brothers who have fallen on hard times.

[Jon]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16272120

No mention of the skew in male/female homeless, just a statistic they managed to find to present women as victims again. Unbelievable.

I'm starting to think the difference in life expectancy between the genders could have more to do with lifestyle than any sort of biological imperative.

What's the difference supposed to be now? 5 years? So take into account increased deaths due to military service, dangerous jobs, homeless figures, more driving to jobs in general, and less spending on health for men and I think it is perfectly feasible we have found where the difference is coming from.

Add to this a media that on the one hand lectures men on paying more attention to their health and on the other mocks them for 'manflu' the second they so much as cough, and you have a recipe for a lower lifespan in my opinion.

[Groan]

I agree Jon. Any international survey and those over time show huge variations in lifespan. For the industrialised countries there was a very small sex difference in the first half of the 20th century. All the more surprising given the wars. The really crucial factors appear to have been better care for pregnancy and birth and the huge drop in numbers of pregnancies and births. This enabled women to pull ahead of men. This is most stark on the big differences between working class men and women. All this indicates that it is about roles. At a time when adult women could expect to spend most of their adult life pregnant or nursing and may face the risk of a dozen births this broadly matched the risks of male roles. Now that women are comparatively rarely pregnant and only spend a small proportion of life nursing and male roles are relatively unchanged the gap is widened. If you think of it much of the current claims for special treatment come from a time when they literally did depend on others for very practical reasons. Now these simply don't apply.

[rc helicopter reviews]

Impressive blog! -Arron

[Alex]

Beautiful, nicely done. I predict of having some more fun stuffs to see and yes the informative as well.

[Cheap Mulberry Factory]

giarrlcjxmyy Thank us all the reality is much -Cheap Mulberry Factory this grow to be be my 5th trimester to be able to preschool Cheap Mulberry Factory plhphpjzjb