I live near an area of my city with large ethnic minority populations and I realised I never see black or Asian people begging, just white people. AFAIK there are higher rates of poverty among some ethnic minorities than white people. Why don’t I see many people from ethnic minorities begging? Is it just random chance or maybe certain ethnic communities look after one another better or maybe white people get good begging spots?
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Because over 80% of the U.K. population is white.
Seems to be even enough where I am, I do see some more asians and women, which I wouldn’t typically see in my area previously.
This is something I noticed when I was in the US, almost all the homeless people I saw over there were black men. In Manchester city centre it’s almost all white.
Britsh culture at its core is selfish. Nobody cares about anyone else but their little bubble, never mind our homeless. Other cultures look after their own and others far more.
Think of that every time you walk past a white homeless person like they’re a ghost.
I’ve spent years volunteering to help the homeless and as someone who is also homeless its only getting worse.
Probably due to many factors. as someone else said, one of the main reasons is probably cos the UK is majority white
Different culture. Asian families dont believe kids should move out until they are atleast married and settled, which is why you will notice 3 gens living under the same roof, taking care of each other.
Kicking your kid out is frowned upon tbh.
Also, drug addiction and alcoholism isn’t a big issue compared to white counterpart so children grow up in a safer environment.
Homeless folk stereotypically come from abusive households or have addiction issues.
Weirdly talking about this the other day….Possibly more pressure in a minority household to do well in life, make their family proud and contribute to society? Wheras white households tend to pander to the child a lot more and be less involved in their lives/schooling….why my brother is homeless now.
(Obviously were just discussing upbringing and this came up, like he wasn’t allowed to do a lot of the things I was allowed to do and I would’ve preferred, looking back, my parents were more involved in my education. Just having one of those deep stoned conversations.)
Because the UK is 87.1% white people.
So you don’t live in London then?
>Why do homeless people seem to be overwhelmingly white?
Because the country as a whole is overwhelmingly white.
It’s probably also in part due to the fact that immigrants tend to be pretty successful people. Having the ambition to move to an entirely different country and make a new life for yourself, and then going out and actually doing it, is not an easy task. The people who do it are generally very motivated, independent, and resourceful people, and they’ll often pass these traits on to their children and grandchildren. These people are less likely to end up homeless.
Asians tend to not kick their children out of the house. As long as there’s space, you can retire there lmao.
Substance abuse is a big driver of homelessness, which South Asian communities in particular have less of. Another risk factor is social exclusion and again ethnic minority communities tend to have strong family and community ties and live closer to one another which may prevent people ending up with literally no option but the street.
White males have statistically worse conviction rates than any other race in the UK. This likely plays a part.
It probably also has to do with geography/location.
One word, family
Probably because the majority of the resident popualtion within the UK are caucasians who appear to be white and this demographic is reflected within the numbers of local street sleepers and individuals begging in public places who claim to be homeless.
Most of the street sleepers and beggars that I see in uk public places tend to be lone younger males or older men in groups. Very few females.
Depends where you are, in Edinburgh the majority I run into are older middle eastern people.
According to this paper published Dec 22 [https://assets-global.website-files.com/59f07e67422cdf0001904c14/63e6476b4d417106be76eae5_CHI.Ethnic.Inequalities.homelessness.pdf](https://assets-global.website-files.com/59f07e67422cdf0001904c14/63e6476b4d417106be76eae5_CHI.Ethnic.Inequalities.homelessness.pdf) the opposite is actually true, with black people being 3x and mixed race 2x as likely to be affected by homelessness in England. This is 3x as likely per the population not 3x as many people total. However some areas are vastly different to others, for example in London there were 15780 homeless black people, 15780 homeless white people, 5880 asian and 5880 mixed… but then in an area such as the South West, there are 23000 homeless white people, 970 black, 470 asian.. so you can see a massive difference between areas. It’s a really in depth report with a lot of interesting statistics if you likoe seeing hard numbers.
But from personal experience I agree, I only see white people begging. Perhaps the distinction then is a cultural divide between homeless people who are living out of sight (bearing in mind homeless can mean temporarily staying with families or friends but not having your own home) and those in direct view.
Okay this is weird because the other day I walked past a homeless guy who was East Asian. I remarked to my fiancee that I genuinely don’t think I’ve ever seen a homeless asian person, ever. Here or in the USA where there are sooooo many visibly homeless people. Was like seeing a unicorn
Everyone’s avoiding answering the question so I’ll try to.
I think in other cultures they have stronger community connections. There’s also a culture of shame in some Asian countries where having a homeless child is so embarrassing that they would rather avoid this at all costs.
Additionally, white working class males are the least likely to be educated beyond secondary school. This means they’re quite vulnerable in terms of employment and life happiness.
People will say it’s because the U.K. is majority white which certainly is a factor.
However if you look at London, black people are over represented in the lower social economic and impoverished groups and make up about a sixth of the population of London.
I don’t know the statistics for London in terms of homeless but whenever I spend time in London I don’t see many black people sleeping rough or begging. When proportionally about one third of people begging should be black.
In Scotland, rough sleeping is quite rare due to a statutory right to be accommodated.
Scotland is very white over 95% white actually. Almost all people facing homelessness in Scotland are white.
There will be social, cultural and religious factors at play for some ethnic minority communities that act as a protective factor as well.
I have noticed that in many other cultures the emphasis on family and looking after each other is much more ingrained in people than my English friends. With (most) of them it’s pretty much look after yourself once you’re an adult. Now I must also stress that the wealthier the family is, the less this becomes true for my English friends.
White privilege on the best spots for begging….jheez we really are fuckers.
cos 82% of uk is white…
Majority of UK citizens are white. If a non-citizen became homeless they would just get deported.
Beggars aren’t necessarily homeless and the homeless aren’t necessarily beggars.
Lots are families with little kids who are sofa surfing or in a hotel/hostel. Nearly 123,000 of the 271,000 homeless are kids. The number of people sleeping rough is about 3,000 – or slightly over 1% of the homeless.
Those you see begging are generally those wanting money for drugs/alcohol, those sleeping rough or scammers.
I’ve never seen a homeless asian person
An answer some wont like: in asian families there are much stronger family ties. It would be an absolute disgrace to the family knowing your sibling/parent/cousin is on the streets and you havent offered a help in hand. Even if there is barely any space in your house for your immediate family
A lot of the beggars near me in Scotland are Roma these days. Apparently they bullied out all our ex-serviceman big issue sellers. I no longer buy it as it seems gang related and I don’t want to support that.
Can I throw in an opinion that might not go down so well? And I’m speaking as a non-white person.
Religion and the community that is built around it plays a bigger part in many ethnic backgrounds, and as such help/food/shelter can often be found within those parameters. Most churches keep their doors locked during non service hours while for example temple will be open from 3am until 8/9pm.
Help is available in Christian organisations and I know they do try but it often doesn’t have the same sense of community.
I often see black homeless men, i also think black people are more likely to be sectioned so possibly more are in secure units?
As someone who has tried on a couple of occasions to ask for help with homelessness being a white single British male ticks zero of their boxes so they tell you with no money in your pocket to feck off and rent privately.
I’m pretty good at getting support for other people but you need at least one hook.
And to be fair black and Asian communities tend to be more supportive of each other than we are. That’s going to skew the figures as well.
For Asian people it’s most likely because we have strong family networks so it’s unlikely we would be out on the streets. Anything that would get us kicked out normally stays hidden, and in general the community is pretty strong.
In comparison British/white culture is a lot more individualistic – you move away from home at an earlier age and are expected to be independent a lot sooner. I’ve noticed people also cut ties from their family members a lot quicker, or don’t keep in touch with them as much so they don’t have a familial support network to rely on if the going gets tough.
I mean, these days I am housebound, so my anecdotal evidence is not much, but my nearest city is Oxford (one of the highest per capita homeless rates, both rough sleepers and others), and whenever I have to pass through to hospital or whatever, I always give what I can to every homeless person I see, or at least speak to them, as I can’t bare to walk past a person like they are pile of rubbish like most people seem to manage – maybe it is because I hardly go out?
Anyway, the people I gave my last cash too, and the people I bought food on my card with last week were nearly all possibly South Asian, maybe even Afghan I think. One women was heavily pregnant, she broke my heart, and she was black, with an East African accent of some kind. I did not see a white person on the streets that day – usually to do, obviously, this is just a snap shot. Also seen black and Asian people rough sleeping on Reading streets too over the last 13 years.
But, of course, the majority of the population is white, so there is that, and culturally, I guess many BAME communities have better extended family support. Plus, of course, many white homeless are old school veterans and addicts and mentally ill, and also male, so could be aggressively defending the best spots? Those homeless by the last 13 years of change of policy and law in so many areas like domestic violence, care, disability benefits and assessments finding those barely able to self care fit for work, who counts as vulnerable homeless, having children under 16 no longer a guarantee to even B&B, and now ignoral of international law of refugees and asylum seekers, means more women and people of colour are on the streets, but often, as I said, intimidated by the poor aggressive men over where to beg/sit/sleep. But with the ending the funning of hotels for Afghan refugees, you might see more men of colour at least?
I work in homeless outreach in London.
Most people you see begging on the street aren’t actually street homeless, they are people with addiction issues. Most rough sleepers don’t sleep in visible areas or on the high street as it isn’t safe.
They may be homeless in other ways (living in a hostel) or in many cases they are street homeless but it is largely because of their drug use. They aren’t begging to raise money for accommodation but often just drugs. White people are more likely to abuse Class A drugs than other ethnicities apart from mixed ethnic people.
In black communities there is greater stigma of Class A drug use so black/mixed ethnicity people are less likely to beg, especially in their local areas. Generally, the white street homeless clients I have worked with are either a) heroin/crack users b) Eastern European migrants.
Most of the white Eastern European clients I work with don’t even consider begging and in some cases will even continue going to/looking for work while they are sleeping on the street.
Consider the demographics of the 80’s when a lot of these old mens problems started. Factories shutting down, alcoholism to cope, this affected mostly white men in that decade and problems persist today.
Ok why are most homeless people men? 🤔
You won’t get a non propaganda laden answer on such a hot topic
Being homeless and sleeping rough are two different things. Homeless people have no permanent address but have somewhere to stay, be it a hostel, or friends and family etc.
Rough sleepers are usually quite different to homeless, and there are pretty often drug and alcohol addicts and therefore family and friends wont put them up, and they end up getting kicked out of hostels, and end up on the streets.
If you see your street inhabitants regularly you should have come to recognise the same faces, and even seen them socialising with other rough sleepers, they basically have their own little community, which is one of the reasons it is so difficult to get them off the streets as it essentially is their home and the other are their friends.
Id take an educated stab in the dark and say that white people are more likely to suffer from the drug and drink addictions that led them there.
The begging is to fund their habits, its not for food or a warm place to sleep, as in reality they had a place to sleep at some point, and lost it, and they had benefits, maybe not enough for drugs as well, but enough to eat.
And before anyone comes with an example of this not being true, yes there may be exceptions, but the majority rule remains true.
I have actually been street homeless for 2 years mostly in Kent. Rough estimates, about 300-400 homeless white pepz, non white people about 5. I stayed in various hostels too. I had plenty of oppurtunity to meet non whites but didnt really. This obviously comes from my kent perspective. As top comment says different areas have different distributions. Like i never saw a homeless black person but if i was homeless up London i definately would i am sure.
I think a lot white british families are like sheets of thin ice. So easy to break. British families are a joke in general to be fair. All for one and all for meself attitudes. All finances get isolated and it makes us weak.
Look at Indians. Sikhs i know. We could learn a thing or two about families from them. Hard to get disbanded out of them. They stick together. Muck in financially. Offers stability.
This is only me generalising. Obviously some amazing and bad families from all spectrums.
I’d assume, other than the fact of the UK being overwhelmingly white (it’s important to remember that the tv adverts where most familes are mixed race with adopted kids of another race don’t actually represent *anyone*) that it has a lot to do with family ties in asian and indian culture.
But yknow, when I lived in Thailand, I never saw any white beggers. Go figure.
Because the real reasons are a Reddit third rail and to mention them will get you down-voted into oblivion.
Purely anecdotal but In my area London, I see white rough sleepers but agressive beggars are pretty much all non white.
Edited to add, there will be more homeless minorities than you realise, such as couch surfers etc
I’ve lived in London my whole life. Up until about 2015 I think I would have wondered the same.
But over the last few years I’ve seen a lot of poc on the streets including women.
I suspect the reason we don’t see more is because of a closer support system? So they might then have an easier time to get back on their feet.
The country is mostly white. But if you’re looking into broader reasons, go look at educational outcomes and you’ll see those who do the worst there also match up with our majority Street sleeper demographic. Then you’ll see that there are so few resources for those people that it makes sense they’ll fall through the cracks. It’s an educational issue and a skill issue and we as a country haven’t given those people what they need nor put a system in place to help them. That leads to my next point.
Those people are likely to be ethnically British. The UK has a huge class problem. If you were born poor 30 years ago, then you probably went down a social class rather than up as the country has declined. If you move here you could be of a lower class in your home country, but the upper class probably don’t know that so they don’t face class prejudice. Or, they avoid some that others don’t face. For example, I don’t think an Eton boy could tell they difference between a Brahmin accent and a Dalit. But he knows what a Scouse accent is and has an idea in his head already
“You never see a Chinese homeless” – Karl Pilkington
government statistics on homelessness between April 2019 and March 2020, and found that a quarter (24%) of people making homelessness applications to local councils were from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups, even though they made up just over a tenth (11%) of all households in England. Black people are disproportionately affected by homelessness with 1 in 23 black households becoming homeless or threatened with homelessness, versus 1 in 83 households from all other ethnicities combined. 11% of homeless people applying for help are Black even though Black people make up 3% of households in England.
It’s because white men are placed at the bottom when it comes to housing and yet I have a 4 star hotel full of illegal immigrants 3 minutes from my house. They are all 20-40 year old men. Can charity start at home or is this racist to say?
Definitely just where you are. Where I live, it’s incredibly common to find people being trafficked forced to sit on the street and beg around here, and they cover a handful of ethnicities.
It depends where you are in the UK though.
I know you said you live in an area with large ethnic populations, but the area could still be majoritively white.
As part of my work, I handle a lot of placement calls for Homeless people and certain London Boroughs will nearly always be ethnic minorities or asylum seekers being called through, while other areas I cover will be mostly white British.