Recently released data for the first six months of 2024 from Toronto Public Health has found that the median age of death for women experiencing homelessness in the city is just 36.

In 2022, unhoused women who died in Toronto were on average 42 years old. That number was 43 in 2023.

The median age at death for men experiencing homelessness in the first half of 2024 was 50.

Torontonians residents, in general, live much longer with men typically dying at the age of 78 and women at the age of 85, according to 2022 data.

  • ArbitraryValue
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    21
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    edit-2
    2 days ago

    This median number may have a counter-intuitive explanation. I don’t know about Toronto but here men form the large majority of visibly homeless people that I encounter. If that’s because women have more support, then the women who remain homeless may appear to be worse off than the men because the less disfunctional women who would have brought up the average life expectancy don’t end up homeless the way that the corresponding men do.

    • HellsBelleOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      6
      ·
      2 days ago

      I’m wondering where you see mostly male unhoused people, as in what areas of your city you frequent. Because if you aren’t visiting red light districts where unhoused women often ply their trade to gain financial resources, I would suggest your anecdotal evidence is skewed at best.

      • ArbitraryValue
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        18
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        2 days ago

        I looked up an actual survey of homeless people in Toronto (from 2018).

        Men represent over half (54%) of all respondents surveyed, and 73% of those surveyed outdoors. Women represent 42% of respondents surveyed, and 75% of those surveyed in family shelters.

        Three times as many men as women sleeping on the streets.

          • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            10
            ·
            edit-2
            2 days ago

            but here men form the large majority of visibly homeless people that I encounter.

            I’m wondering where you see mostly male unhoused people,

            I looked up an actual survey of homeless people in Toronto

            Your numbers are outdated [though]. Here are updated counts from Toronto’s 2021

            Is that the one that shows the percentages have skewed even harder toward predominantly male homelessness?

            I guess in answer to your earlier question, ‘where you see mostly male unhoused people’, the answer could be ‘everywhere, based on your numbers’ perhaps? It went from 3:1 to now 4:1.

      • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        2 days ago

        if you aren’t visiting red light districts

        In Toronto? The one in Canada or the one near Amsterdam?