Homeless people in Australia only eat an average of 14 meals per week, according to new research from the University of Melbourne.
The research findings, contained in a report titled Food Insecurity and Homelessness in the Journeys Home Survey, also showed that people who were disadvantaged and at risk of homelessness but were still living in a home ate an average of only one more meal per week – 15.
Prof David Ribar, based at the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research and the report’s co-author, said the findings showed that both homeless people and “disadvantaged housed people struggle with access to food”.
The report – based on a three-year longitudinal study that followed nearly 1,700 disadvantaged Australians who were homeless or at risk of homelessness – also showed that while homeless men had more difficulty accessing food than similarly disadvantaged housed men, the same was not true of women with both homeless and disadvantaged housed women having similar access to food.
And while about one in three homeless men use emergency food services such as a soup kitchen, only about one in six homeless women use such services. The research suggests this disparity may be explained by the fact that the women surveyed tend to experience shorter periods of homelessness and had better access to shelters than the men surveyed.