Homeless Men in London: I. Demographic Findings in a Lodging House Sample

Surveys of homeless men have emphasized a variety of correlations and causes. Criminality (Edwards et al., 1968; Sewell, 1969; Laidlaw, 1956; Commissioners of Police, 1859), alcoholism (Straus, 1946; Wattenburg et al., 1954; Bogue, 1963; Blumberg., et al., 1966) and poverty (Booth, 1890; National Assistance Board, 1966; London County Council, 1962; Shelter, 1969) are some to which attention has been drawn already (Lodge Patch, 1970). The relationship of these to a rootless way of life seems less impressive than psychiatric factors (Anderson, 1923; Whiteley, 1955; Laidlaw, 1956: Skinner, 1966–7). Edwards, for example, showed that 24 per cent of men in a reception centre had been in mental hospitals; 7 per cent having been discharged within six months of the Survey.