PRINCE WILLIAM AND THE ROYAL FOUNDATION LAUNCH UK-WIDE PROGRAMME TO END HOMELESSNESS

Prince William today, (Monday 26th June 2023), launched Homewards, a five-year locally led programme which will demonstrate that together it is possible to end homelessness: making it rare, brief, and unrepeated.

Homewards will take a transformative approach to the issue of homelessness and put collaboration at its heart, giving six flagship locations new space, tools, and relationships to showcase what can be achieved through a collective effort focused on preventing homelessness in their areas. The six locations will be gradually unveiled by Prince William as he embarks on a UK tour which will take place over the next two days (Monday 26th and Tuesday 27th June), starting in London.

At each location, Homewards will support local partners to form locally led coalitions of committed individuals, organisations, and businesses who will work together to create and deliver a tailored plan to prevent homelessness in their areas – based on local needs and local expertise.

Homewards will further support its six flagship locations by:

• providing access to an unprecedented network of best-in-class expertise, partners and funders at a local and national level to unlock new ideas and further investment;
• providing up to £500,000 of flexible seed funding in each location that can be accessed to support the delivery of their action plan;
• appointing a local lead to support the locations to drive forward their coalitions and Action Plans and spot new opportunities; and
• working with an independent research partner that will support with capacity building, evaluation and sharing what works throughout the programme.

Homes will be a focus of the Homewards programme as each flagship location will be supported to deliver an innovative housing project that will test new ways to unlock homes at scale within the location and beyond.

The impact of Homewards will reach beyond the six locations, with results and findings from each location being used to create a flexible, tried, and tested model that can be adopted by other areas in the UK and internationally. As well as delivering real, tangible impact in each local area, Homewards will focus on improving understanding and boosting optimism around the issue of homelessness.

Homewards is a five-year commitment. By the end of that period, we want our locations to be on a path to ending homelessness for good – making it rare, brief, and unrepeated. Our ambition is that this becomes business as usual, not just in these locations, but around the UK and beyond.