The Prince of Wales has started a large-scale initiative with the goal of putting an end to homelessness in five years.
With the Homewards project, Prince William intends to follow in the footsteps of Finland, where homelessness has been all but eliminated. The project will first concentrate on six places throughout the UK.
Businesses, organisations, and individuals will collaborate as part of the £3 million effort to create “tailor-made” action plans to address homelessness in their communities.
William already supports the homeless charities The Passage and Centrepoint. He began a two-day visit of the UK this morning in Lambeth, south London, to introduce the Homewards initiative.
It’s hoped with this project rough sleeping, sofa surfing and other forms of temporary accommodation become a thing of the past.
William said: ‘In a modern and progressive society, everyone should have a safe and secure home, be treated with dignity and given the support they need.
‘Through Homewards, I want to make this a reality and over the next five years, give people across the UK hope that homelessness can be prevented when we collaborate.
‘I am fortunate to have seen first-hand the tireless work of people and organisations across the sector, the tangible impact their efforts can have and what can be done when communities are able to focus on preventing homelessness, rather than managing it.
‘It’s a big task, but I firmly believe that by working together it is possible to make homelessness rare, brief, and unrepeated and I am very much looking forward to working with our six locations to make our ambition a reality.’
Each of the six locations will be supported to deliver a housing project to ‘test new ways to unlock homes at scale’.
The locations were selected after a bidding process, and it’s hoped Homewards’ results will create models which can be adopted by other parts of the UK.
Matt Downie, chief executive of charity Crisis, says there are around 300,000 people experiencing homelessness in the UK on any given night.
He said factors ‘pushing’ people into homelessness include a ‘severe shortage of genuinely affordable homes’, rising rents, the increasing cost of living, low wages, and insecure work, adding that people are unable to cope with ‘sudden economic shocks’ and the welfare system is ‘unable to support people’.
Matt added: ‘Homelessness is not inevitable, as a provider of services to thousands of people across Britain every year.
‘We know that in most cases it’s preventable, and in every case it can be ended.
‘The best way to tackle homelessness is to stop it happening in the first place.
‘We’ve seen it in other countries such as Finland, where homelessness is all but ended, and we’ve seen it when we follow innovative programmes that give people housing first.
‘We know we can do the same here with the right choices and by working together.
‘With levels of homelessness only set to increase innovative programmes like Homewards are more necessary than ever.’
William described his project as ‘an additive to what is already being done’ in a Sunday Times.
When asked if there were plans for affordable housing on Duchy of Cornwall land he inherited on becoming Prince of Wales, he said: ‘There is. Absolutely. Social housing. You’ll see that when it’s ready.’
A royal source said: ‘The prince believes that rather than continue to shine a light on the issue, that it’s time to take action.
‘And yes, he may be in the position he is in, but this isn’t about big gestures, this isn’t about a PR stunt.
‘This is about trying to deliver systemic change to the way that we as a society think about homelessness.’
Republic, which campaigns for an elected head of state, criticised the plans and called on the future king to ‘directly’ challenge the Government for, it claimed, causing homelessness.
Republic chief Graham Smith said: ‘Homelessness is the result of government policy and lack of investment, it isn’t something that can be resolved by charity or royal patronage.
‘It is also, in part, the result of economic inequality, something represented by the super-rich royals who live in multiple palatial homes.’
He highlighted the prince’s three homes: Adelaide Cottage, a four-bedroom property in Windsor Castle’s Home Park, Kensington Palace’s 20-room Apartment 1A and Anmer Hall, a mansion on the King’s private Sandringham estate in Norfolk.