The Prince of Wales recently sat down for an interview with The Times, where he spoke about homelessness and his future plans to help combat the crisis facing the UK.
William’s first interview as Prince of Wales took place at Reuben House in Peckham, a Centrepoint project for young people which he had just officially opened. William is Patron of the charity, and has been since 2005.
Homelessness is a cause that was close to his mother’s heart and one that William was introduced to at a very young age, most notably when Diana took William and his brother Harry to visit The Passage in 1993.
‘My mother introduced me to the cause of homelessness from quite a young age, and I’m really glad she did,’ the Prince explained. But he also said that he thought his mother ‘would be disappointed that we are still no further on, in terms of tackling homelessness and preventing it, than when she was interested and involved in it.’
And, just as his mother taught him from a young age, he has been teaching his children about homelessness too. ‘When we were in London, driving backwards and forwards, we regularly used to see people sitting outside supermarkets and we’d talk about it. I’d say to the children, “Why are they there? What’s going on?”.
‘I think it’s in all our interests, it’s the right thing to do, to expose the children, at the right stage in the right dialogue, so they have an understanding.’
Prince William and Kate, with their children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, at a Coronation Big Help Out event with local Scouts in Slough
He plans to bring his children along on visits to homeless shelters just as his mother did, but he wants to find the right time when he can ‘balance it with their schooling’. The kids, he says, will ‘grow up knowing that actually, do you know what, some of us are very fortunate, some of us need a little bit of a helping hand, some of us need to do a bit more where we can to help others improve their lives.’
Is William actively going to be trying to bring down the numbers of those homeless in the country? That’s the plan! He revealed during the interview that later this month he will reveal a ‘really big’ project from the Royal Foundation that he hopes will provide living conditions that ‘improve people’s lives who need that first rung of the ladder’.
The Prince also mentioned that there are plans for social housing on Duchy of Cornwall land, a vast estate and land owner that has come to him upon becoming Heir Apparent in September.
One of the key areas of Prince William’s royal work has been to raise awareness around homelessness. (Centrepoint).
The Duchy of Cornwall was established in 1337 by Edward III and is the estate given to the Duke of Cornwall, who is always the eldest son and heir of the Monarch. William is the 25th Duke to be the Duchy’s captain, and the revenue generated from it funds his and his family’s public, private and charitable work.
The Prince is particularly concerned about youth homelessness, which is going to be addressed by this new project. According to Centrepoint’s freedom of information requests to councils, 122,000 young people aged 16 to 24 are homeless or at risk of being homeless.
‘For me, 122,000 is a figure that’s way too high,’ William said. ‘We need to get ahead of the curve to stop this becoming more and more fixed.’
