The Prince of Wales wants his ambitious project to end homelessness to move from a niche endeavour to the mainstream as he unveiled a new partnership with a High Street Bank.
Williams Homewards initiative is attempting to develop a blueprint to make homelessness “rare, brief and unrepeated”.
He has now joined forces with Lloyds Banking Group, which has made £50 million available to organisations tackling the issue.
Small and medium-sized housing providers and charities working in six locations Homewards is targeting, and who struggle to secure financial support from lenders, will have access to the fund.
The Prince visited an 11-bed housing scheme in Poole for people with mental health issues, run by Bournemouth Churches Housing Association (BCHA).
It was to mark the tie-up with Lloyds Banking Group and he was joined by the lender’s chief executive officer Charlie Nunn.
During a conversation with Mr Nunn and representatives from BCHA and the local authority, the prince said:
“We really want to move Homewards from being a niche thing – people have started to live with homelessness for a long time and it’s become a niche thing – try and make it more mainstream, so people understand it and they get it.
“Everyone cares about people being looked after and not living on the streets, so how do we make this more of a national thing and I’m hoping that’s part of the narrative of the five years.”
William went on to visit Bournemouth and Poole College to see how Homewards BCP has worked with local organisations such as Sunseeker International and Faithworks to create employment programmes for people at risk or experiencing homelessness.
The course participants are able to interview for the Sunseeker Boat Building Programme, which is taught across Bournemouth and Poole College’s Sunseeker Skills Academy, and at the Sunseeker Shipyard.
The prince was shown how to cut a section of pipe in the freshwater engine of the boat.
William said as he started: “It’s a bit more complicated than Lego.
“I hope someone checks it before it goes in the boat, don’t want it sinking on us.
“Have I passed then? Phew, thank goodness for that.”