How do you solve a problem like rising homelessness? Prince William has some ideas. On Monday he launched a five-year project intended to end homelessness in the UK by taking a Housing First approach in six locations across the country, in partnership with local charities and organisations who are already doing this work at a grassroots level.
‘Housing first’ is a radical approach to homelessness. The premise is simple: people experiencing homelessness are given a home before any other issues that they might be experiencing, including addiction or unemployment. There are no caveats – they are not told to stop drinking, moralised over drug use or told that they must get a job before they are eligible for housing – they are simply given a home and any treatment they need.
It is also claimed to be the only evidenced-based approach to homelessness that has been proven to work. It originated in New York and was further developed through the 1990s in Finland by Juha Kaakinen, where long-term street homelessness has now effectively been eradicated.
Scotland has a ‘housing first’ policy and the government there has invested £5.5m since 2019 in the country’s Housing First pathfinder programme.
King Charles III was notoriously political when he held the role of Prince of Wales, regularly speaking out about conservation and climate change, but Prince William has taken that to the next level with this initiative: Homewards.
Homelessness, according to the future King of England, has no place in a “modern and progressive society”.
Yet in Britain more people are being pushed into homelessness as the cost-of-living crisis rages on in its second year. The number of people living in temporary accommodation has risen by an alarming 74 per cent in the last 10 years and there are more than a million households – many of whom are families with children – on waiting lists for social homes in England alone.
The Conservative Party pledged to end rough sleeping by 2024 in their 2019 manifesto but street homelessness is also currently rising and they are not on track to meet this target.
But that’s not because they don’t know how to end homelessness. Reflecting on the launch of Homewards, Matt Downie, the chief executive of Crisis, told i: “We already know the solutions to homelessness – it’s the will and implementation of these from Government that we need to see.”
So the issue of homelessness appears to be as political as it is problematic for policymakers.
In Newport, south Wales, where rough sleeping has been getting worse in recent months according to local charities, local people who were once homeless but are now permanently housed by the housing association Linc Cymru met with Prince William on Monday.
Afterwards they told i that having the heir to the throne involved in ending homelessness will “get the message across” to politicians and go a long way to ending the stigma that “being homeless is an individual’s fault”.
Prince William wants to work collaboratively with local organisations in his six chosen areas to help them end homelessness within their communities and offer up to £500,000 worth of funding to support this aim via the Royal Foundation.
The people who have lived experience of homelessness that i spoke with following the Prince’s visit to Newport all hoped that he could move the dial on homelessness in Britain and spur the government to act.
Joanne Bradley, 57, is from Newport. She lived in temporary accommodation for more than a year and even lived in a shed after becoming homeless.
Ms Bradley told i that being homeless affected her mental health so badly that she “didn’t want to be here.”
She said that the Prince of Wales’s involvement in ending homelessness would make people realise that “homelessness isn’t just the people you see on the streets”.
When asked if they supported the Prince’s endeavours, the Labour Party declined to comment, but they are thought to be working up a fully costed homelessness strategy. When it will be announced remains to be seen.
The government, on the other hand, responded positively and sung the praises of Housing First.
A Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) spokesperson told i that “Housing First is an important part of government policy” and noted that DLUHC is funding three regional Housing First pilots.
“We welcome the Prince of Wales’s programme,” the spokesperson added. “And are consulting with partners from national and local government, charities and voluntary organisations, and private sector to work together on plans to eradicate homelessness.”
Homelessness experts, including the charities Shelter and Crisis, who are partnering with the Prince of Wales on Homewards, agree that Housing First is the answer to ending homelessness once and for all in Britain. With the backing of the heir to the throne, this once-radical approach could not only become an accepted policy but an established one.
If it does, Britain could end homelessness once and for all but people may wonder why it took a member of the royal family to step in where politicians had failed.
