It’s a sight that’s too familiar — the homeless person slumped in a shop door or stretched out in a dirty sleeping bag. Some of the begging signs are worn by familarity, though one enterprising example I saw in Washington read simply “I also take Venmo” (the US payments app). But the message is the same — rough sleepers are a sign of failure in our cities. More than 3,000 people are now recorded as sleeping rough in the capital, a 14 per cent rise in the past year.
The Prince of Wales this week launched his five-year Homewards programme aimed at fixing a problem which shames us all. The instinctive response might well be an eye-roll at royals with palatial residences promising real change.
