Prince William to Speak at Homewards Homelessness Programme Anniversary Event

Prince William is scheduled to speak Tuesday at an anniversary event for the Homewards programme, where he will state that homelessness stems from systemic failure rather than individual shortcomings. He is expected to say that if systems help create the problem, then systems can help prevent it.

The five-year initiative, launched in 2023, aims to make homelessness rare, brief and unrepeated across Britain.

The Royal Foundation has provided £1.9 million to six pilot locations through the Homewards Fund over the past three years. Those locations are Newport, Lambeth, Belfast, Aberdeen, Sheffield, and the Dorset coastal towns of Poole, Bournemouth and Christchurch. The programme has attracted an additional £3.5 million through grants and private philanthropy.

Surplus goods valued at £2.3 million have furnished homes for people transitioning out of homelessness. Two hundred fifty individuals have obtained stable employment through the initiative, and in Aberdeen 31 people have moved into accommodation created specifically through the programme.

Hazel Detsiny, executive director for homelessness at the Royal Foundation, said the project is at the halfway point and showing evidence of what works.

She noted that Prince William repeatedly asks how success will be measured at the end of five years and whether changes will last. Chelsie Robinson, an opera singer from Newport in South Wales who experienced homelessness and received help from Newport city council, said her life has dramatically changed through support from family, friends and organisations.