Thread by @AllyFogg

Been digging into this research from @crisis_uk reported here independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n… with the original report here crisis.org.uk/media/240459/c… - The most important thing to say is that the call to make people escaping DV/DA a priority housing need is absolutely correct & urgent. >

The report is also very good on the complex nature of homlessness, the reality of hidden homelessness & the complexities of the situation for people experiencing or fleeing DV/DA. So far so good. So what's my problem? Well, buckle up:

The report itself & the resulting news coverage is almost entirely gender-exclusive. The report uses "victims" and "women" interchangeably throughout. A quick word count on the report finds 'women' appears 72 times and 'men' appears twice.

Is this fair? Well the report tells us that according to this national research orca.cf.ac.uk/91453/1/Nation… 61% of women who become homeless have experienced violence /abuse from a partner, compared to only 16% of homeless men. Fair enough, that's a big difference. >

What they don't mention is that in that VERY SAME REPORT into the experiences of single homeless people nationally, 83% of homeless people were male & 17% female. So bearing THIS in mind, for every 1000 homeless people, 133 men and 104 women became homeless following DV/DA.

Now this isn't necessarily an accurate reflection of the circumstances. Male and female survivors of DV/DA have different experiences & different needs & a lot of the specific issues affecting homeless women do not apply to homeless men. However an awful lot of them do. >

But there is huge amounts of other evidence that DV/DA is a significant cause of homelessness in men, and the situation regarding the relative availability of hostel accommodation for men & women adds whole other layers of difficulties for male victims. For starters, >

> it remains the case that there is NOT ONE SINGLE DV REFUGE FOR MEN IN THE WHOLE OF LONDON and fewer than a hundred beds nationally. This fact does not warrant a mention from @crisis_uk anywhere in the report >

@crisis_uk According to the acknowledgements, @crisis_uk worked with: Women’s Aid, Refuge, St Mungo’s, Shelter, The Domestic Abuse and Housing Alliance, Homeless Link, Changing Lives, Hestia, Centrepoint, DePaul UK, Chartered Institute of Housing & Connection at St Martin’s in the Field. >

@crisis_uk It apparently did not occur to them to speak to @MankindInit or @MBCoalition or any other charity, organisation or expert specialising in supporting male survivors & victims of domestic abuse.

@crisis_uk @ManKindInit @MBCoalition and I'm afraid this is just a really depressing reminder of how so much of the homelessness sector fails dismally to consider the gender-specific issues of men in need. They're stuck in this 1970s notion that 'gender issues' are something that affect women, so not only do they >

@crisis_uk @ManKindInit @MBCoalition Fail to consider that many, many homeless men are survivors of sexual abuse, domestic abuse, sexual exploitation & other so called 'women's issues', they routinely forget that homeless men have children, families, sexualities and the full round gamut of gender issues.

@crisis_uk @ManKindInit @MBCoalition C'mon guys, it's 2019. We all know that male victims of sexual violence, domestic abuse and gendered exploitation are everywhere. We can't even pretend any more. Do better, please? /FIN

@crisis_uk @ManKindInit @MBCoalition PS. Just ocurred to me there's not a single mention of LGBT/ same sex relationships anywhere in here. Yes. LGBT people suffer domestic abuse. Yes, LGBT people become homeless. Yes, the needs & circumstances of LGBT people in crisis are different & need to be considered @crisis_uk