The State of Homelessness: 2021 Edition found that 60% of all homeless people in America are male. In other countries like the UK, the Netherlands, Australia, etc., similar numbers are true.

Between 2018–2019, 84% of people reported to be sleeping on the streets in London were male while 16% were female. Amsterdam placed the percentage of homeless who were male at a high of 88%. And even in countries with a smaller gender gap, like Australia, men still account for over 50% of the general homeless population.

Gender, therefore, acts as both a symptom and a cause of homelessness. 

Why are there so many more homelessness men than women? While the reasons are multi-layered, some of them include:

– Men are more likely to be made redundant and less likely to be re-employed than women, thus increasing their risk of falling into debt and losing their home.

– Another reason is that most veterans, particularly those returning from combat duty, are men. Veterans experience many complications related to mental health crises, job placements, broken families, and similar problems that lead to extreme situations such as homelessness or suicide.

– And to give a final reason, the vast majority of people in prison are men—as we have mentioned earlier. A report in 2018 by Prison Policy shows that formerly incarcerated people are almost 10 times more likely to become homeless than the general public. 

Since prison takes people away from society often for extended periods, people who are released from prison struggle to transition back into society. Finding a stable job, learning a new skill, and finding a place to live are challenging. 

These challenges can be so overwhelming that many people, in this case men, are overcome with no alternative but to live on the street.