The Prince of Wales has spent the morning in East Belfast as part of a two day tour to launch his new homelessness project.
Prince William announced the Homewards project yesterday alongside his aim to end homelessness in five years.
Building upon the legacy of his late mother, Prince William has taken a keen interest in the issues surrounding homelessness and last year sold copies of The Big Issue on the streets of London.
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It is understood that the Prince arrived in Northern Ireland via helicopter last night before spending the evening at Hillsborough Castle.
During the visit, His Royal Highness will discuss how the East Belfast Mission forms part of a five-year locally led programme, delivered by The Royal Foundation, which will demonstrate that together it is possible to end homelessness: making it rare, brief, and unrepeated.
The East Belfast Mission provides a range of support across all communities in Belfast.
One of their key areas of focus is responding to and preventing homelessness and the Prince spoke to representatives from the East Belfast Mission about their work to tackle homelessness and their new housing development ‘240’.
Launching the new project, Prince William said: “In a modern and progressive society, everyone should have a safe and secure home, be treated with dignity and given the support they need.
“Through Homewards, I want to make this a reality and over the next five years, give people across the UK hope that homelessness can be prevented when we collaborate.
“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.
“It's a big task, but I firmly believe that by working together it is possible to make homelessness rare, brief, and unrepeated and I am very much looking forward to working with our six locations to make our ambition a reality.”
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 also assist the groups 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.
In addition to this they will appoint 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.
This approach comes as new research, released by The Royal Foundation, suggests that one in five of the UK public have some experience of the issue (either themselves or through someone close to them).
Existing data estimates that homelessness is broader than we think, with over 300,000 people - nearly half of whom are children - currently sofa surfing, sleeping on the streets, living in cars, staying in hostels and other types of temporary accommodation.
There is reason for hope, however - with two-thirds (65%) believing that as a society, there are plenty of things we can do to end homelessness.
Homewards will showcase the impact that can be made through collaboration and to support this, The Royal Foundation is bringing together an unprecedented network of organisations and individuals committed to ending homelessness. The ‘Homewards Partnership’ will support the six locations and galvanise national momentum.
Amanda Berry, CEO of The Royal Foundation added: “At The Royal Foundation, we believe that change is always possible. Ending homelessness is a societal challenge that requires a societal response. We are thrilled to launch Homewards and the Homewards Partnership today, to help us achieve this.
“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.”
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