During a visit to Sheffield, Prince William teamed up with former Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Dragon’s Den star Stephen Bartlett to mark the second anniversary of Homewards – his project to alleviate homelessness –
Prince William has spoken of his mission to alleviate homelessness for thousands of people “screwed by society” by offering them ‘hope’ for the future. The Prince of Wales visited Sheffield today to mark the second anniversary of his ambitious Homewards programme, aimed at making homelessness “rare, brief and unrepeated”.
At an events space in the city centre, William was joined by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Dragon’s Den entrepreneur Stephen Bartlett to celebrate the second anniversary of the Homewards project. William announced a new partnership with the former Labour MP’s Multibank charity, which provides necessities such as toiletries, bedding and clothes for people rehoused after a period of homelessness.
William said his aim to extend on more than 100 local initiatives to tackle homelessness across six flagship locations – Aberdeen; Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole; Lambeth; Newport; Northern Ireland and Sheffield – was to being partners from across the private, public and charity sector to achieve his goals.
He said: “Partnership is the key in everything that Homewards stands for. I can tell you very clearly it’s a team game.
“Nothing happens without us all working together and doing things properly. It’s very difficult for the government, it’s difficult for businesses, it’s difficult for the charity sector, partnerships, communities, whatever it is, the whole system gels when it works together.
“And for me I’ve already seen the power of partnerships over the last couple of years in terms of seeing the public sector and private sector working together and what has struck me is that the private sector really feel like they belong her with Homewards. It’s about bringing as many people into the equation as possible, we’ve all got a part to play and if we all pull on those strings we can make a difference.
“Hope is very important. I feel less hopeful when I’m doing something things by myself. I think as human beings we all want to feel connected and I always think the greatest impact is when we work together.”
Mr Brown congratulated the prince on the charity’s progress since its inception in 2023, adding: “Progress is all about moving forwards together. We are in the business of helping anyone in need. As the Prince of wales said, it is all about hope, potential and talent that can be filled.”
William added that Homewards’ role in helping people through a mixture of homelessness problems, including getting off the streets or out of temporary accommodation to give them their own place to live, was centred on “calming down the chaos” in their lives.
He said: “Homelessness is about housing, but it’s not just about housing. We have to ask people their problems, find out what has brought them to such a situation. And I’ve seen myself when you can help them calminf down chaos in their lives, it’s such an important part and we take it for granted, but it’s such a huge moment to have that stability.
“I love the idea that we are creating a model that others can copy, because there’s no point creating something brand new that no one can follow.”
William said one strand of the project which was already seeing results is the “employment pathway”, helping those affected by homelessness to find jobs.
He added: “It’s been really important to put the whole jigsaw together because it doesn’t matter how many houses you provide, people won’t stay in them and they won’t feel safe in them.
“Thats what I love about the employment pathway, because many of these people have found themselves for many reasons not of their own making, outside of society.
“To get them back into society you have to give them the skill set to do that and employment is one of those things where if you can’t find a job, you don’t get skills and you don’t have any skills because you’re at an age when you’re already past your education or training opportunities, you are literally screwed by society unless somebody comes along says I’ll give you a chance and an opportunity and if we are going to sit back and wait for that to happen, it’s going to take a very long time to sort this out.”
As the programme moves into “delivery mode” Homewards today unveiled a new strand of work focused on early intervention to tackle the root causes of homelessness at a school in Sheffield.
The new initiative surveys young people to identify those who are at greater risk of homelessness and provides them with the support they and their families need at the earliest possible point. ‘Upstream’ is modelled on the Australian Geelong Project, which saw a 40 per cent reduction in youth homelessness and a 20 per cent reduction in the number of young people leaving school early.
After the panel, entrepreneur Stephen Bartlett, 32, praised the Prince for “changing attitudes to homelessness” to help those caught in a cycle of being unable to find a place to live.
Bartlett, who became an advocate for the programme last year told how a recent trip with the Prince to Aberdeen “completely changed my perception” of the issue. He said: “If you’re aiming at the wrong target you’re never going to hit the bullseye and your solutions will be ineffective.
“I came into this partnership thinking homelessness was an issue of housing but then I got to meet the young people at risk of homelessness and I was stunned into silence.
“Everything they said were things I would have never thought, not that they couldn’t find jobs or a skills shortage, it was a myriad of different things such as confidence, family issues, mental health challenges, which just proves it’s a complicated issue.
“In realising that it’s a complicated issue you need partners to come together which is what Homewards is trying to do. why we need partners to come to come together which has given me hope we can make a difference.”
Mr Brown said: “I think he’s changing people’s views. He has shown his passion, his dedication and his commitment. I know he was influenced by his mother at a very early age but he really believes that we have to do something about the problems of people who for whatever reason are left behind and lose out, but where we can help we must.
“I see this charity that he has created going from strength to strength and we are only at the beginning of what I think is going to be a very big success story.”
Afterwards, the Prince shook hands with hundreds of pupils at Meadowhead School and Sixth Form, which is taking part in a project to intervene early before homelessness sets in. The school, the second-largest in Sheffield, is piloting the Upstream project, which is led by Homewards.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, whose mother Clare set up the domestic violence charity Wearside Women in Need, was on site to greet the prince and joined him for a roundtable about Upstream.
William also joined an awareness workshop led by Roundabout, a local youth homelessness charity, with a class of Year 9 pupils. Throughout the school visit, William was cheered by hundreds of flag-waving pupils, many of whom looked delighted when they got to shake his hand.
Afterwards, school head Kam Grewal-Joy said: “We were not expecting that he would take so much time with the pupils. It was amazing, he shook hands and spent time with so many of them, it meant a lot to our school community.”
