The Prince of Wales is fulfilling his mother’s legacy by launching an ambitious plan to show the world that homelessness can be ended.
It is understood the future King personally instructed The Royal Foundation, which supports his work to tackle society’s biggest challenges, to “find out how they can make a real impact” on the issue.
Hours of work and planning by The Prince and his team has produced a five-year commitment to make homelessness “rare, brief and unrepeated”.
Prince William will embark on a tour across the United Kingdom to unveil ‘Homewards’ at six locations, selected to become blueprints for solutions to end homelessness.
These plans, The Royal Foundation hopes, can be replicated in other areas across the country and internationally.
The Prince of Wales said: “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”.
Homewards will support each of the six locations with an “unprecedented” package, including up to £500,000 of “flexible seed funding” and access to a National Expert Panel.
The Prince’s power to “bring people around the table” is expected to support local people, organisations and businesses to form “locally lead coalitions” who will work together to deliver a tailored plan to prevent homelessness in their areas.
A number of celebrity advocates including presenter Sara Cox and television personality Gail Porter will help His Royal Highness promote the programme.
Amanda Berry, CEO of The Royal Foundation, said: “We will bring together the brightest and the best partners to work with us and our six locations to demonstrate that together it is possible to end homelessness”.
But Prince William has conceded ending homelessness is “a big task”.
New research commissioned by The Royal Foundation suggests one in five of the UK public have some experience of homelessness – either directly or via family or friends.
Existing data estimates that over 300,000 people – nearly half of whom are children – are currently sofa surfing, sleeping rough, living in cars, or staying in hostels and other types of temporary accommodation.
The Duchy of Cornwall spans a vast 135,000 acres across Britain, and the Prince of Wales has a home at Kensington Palace in London, Adelaide Cottage in Windsor, and Anmer Hall in Norfolk.
The five-year project is thought to be just the start of the Prince’s life-long passion to end homelessness.