Prince William: ‘I’ve slowly tried to work out’ what to do about homelessness

Prince William’s new ITV documentary, Prince William: We Can End Homelessness, will come out at some point. They still aren’t saying when, just “coming soon.” I wonder if they’re really trying to build some buzz for this and whether that buzz will blow up in William’s face, much like the homelessness program he’s trying to promote. Last year, William launched Homewards, what amounted to a pilot program giving Royal Foundation money to local homeless shelters and halfway houses in six cities. Instead of billing it just like that, William spent weeks centering himself as the savior of homeless people. He was heavily criticized by policy experts, republicans and even some royalists. This documentary doesn’t cover any of that appropriate pushback, from what I can see. Instead, it’s once again a William-centered piece of PR fluff about how HE cares about homelessness, rather than the issue itself.

William says in this clip: “I’ve slowly tried to work out what I can bring to the role and platform that I have. I have taken some inspiration and guidance from what my mother did, particularly with homelessness….I don’t believe we should be living with homelessness in the 21st century.” The operative word is “slowly.” He’s 42 years old and it’s taken him this long to come up with “maybe we should donate more money to homeless shelters.” I sh-t you not. And make no mistake, that really is the sum total of Homewards and William’s whole philosophy. “Donate money, add bureaucracy so that people know the money is coming from William’s foundation, and center William at all times because everything must be about William.”

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

52 Responses to “Prince William: ‘I’ve slowly tried to work out’ what to do about homelessness”

Comments are Closed

We close comments on older posts to fight comment spam.

  1. Cassie says:

    William looks like a homeless man himself .

    • Where'sMyTiara says:

      That’s an insult to unhoused people. He has people who can shave his face for him. They don’t have access to the tools to get their basic needs met on the street.

    • Honeybee says:

      Second last image of egg is nauseating. He looks like a homeless grandpa who spent his 20s and 30s in drugs and alcohol.

  2. Where'sMyTiara says:

    Or, the govt could just take the Duchy of Cornwall money and put people in houses.
    How many vacant homes are there across the UK?
    Private Equity fund vultures have been buying up US homes, speculating to the point where our unhoused population is skyrocketing. High rents, houses being bought up and turned into Air B&Bs, and stagnant wages have all contributed to this.

    The way to end homelessness is clear, Huevo: we need to enshrine in law that housing is a human right, and make it a crime for investors to speculate in residential housing. And there needs to be a Universal Basic Income, so that people can get basic needs met.
    We need to tax the disgustingly wealthy. BRF, time to empty your pockets and vaults, darlings.

    • Gabby says:

      @Where’sMyTiara, I’d say Buckingham Palace is a pretty big vacant home, and it has been made plain that none of the royal family actually want to live there.

      Isn’t it also currently being renovated at vast taxpayer expense? I think it is. So make it suitable to house people who need it most. Why do we give Huevo so much free advice here?

    • Emily says:

      Totally agree about the solution.

      But who will think of the wealthy who bought their $3 million house for $100,000.

  3. Chaine says:

    Maybe he is centering himself because he has discovered that the solution to homelessness is accumulating as many residences as possible so that you’ve always got a backup

  4. Amy Bee says:

    It’s a bit rich for him to be talking about ending homelessness when he’s one of the biggest landlords in the UK. His friend the Duke of Westminster is another one.

    • Mayp says:

      As an American I’m a bit confused by the term “landlord” as it is used in the UK. Usually, here, a landlord is a person that owns a freehold on the property, both land and all structures thereon. But in the UK it is my understanding that a lot of the property that is owned by, for example, the Duke of Westminster and the Duchy of Cornwall is only ownership of the land and not of the structures thereon-so they are only leaseholders of the land and not freeholders.

      Am I mistaken? If not, maybe they need to bring back that program where people are able to purchase the property on which their home sits-from which, I believe, the Royal family had been previously excepted.

  5. Maxine Branch says:

    No one takes William seriously. A pathetic 42 year old man

    • Giddy says:

      How can anyone take a huevo seriously when he so obviously uses the homeless issue as a vehicle for what he really cares about…himself. It’s all me, me, look at me. Look how concerned I am, look how I care. Solutions? He doesn’t have a clue.

  6. Afken says:

    I love when the wales and their PR have to stress the “slowly” or “over the past ten years” stuff. Makes me laugh. Because you KNOW they feel insecure about people pointing out how useless they’ve been in the over a decade they’ve been working royals (including part time). Oh to have the luxury to take years and years to merely be “keen”.

  7. Nanea says:

    I still find it strange that there is another project that Harry’s brother involved himself with that took the name from a program that existed elsewhere, Homeward Edmonton in Canada, established in 2009.

    See also Earthshot — founded by a Goldman Prize winner a few years prior to 🥚’s Keenshot Earthflop.

    Or Charlotte Diana Spencer, born 3 years before CD Wales, or Louis Spencer, Viscount Althorp, born in 1994.

    Let’s hope, for the sake of unhoused people in the UK, that this project can make a difference eventually.

    But when I see the huge overhead costs of the Royal Foundation, compared to the tiny morsels they actually contribute to charities, I don’t think 🥚’s Homewards will attempt to solve anything beyond getting some good press for a few days, if that. They not only have no ideas other than things they crib from elsewhere, but they also can’t sell it.

    • Eurydice says:

      I don’t have a problem with him copying other’s ideas – there are lots of organizations doing things similar to one another. But the point is to help the homeless, not to provide PR for William.

    • Chaine says:

      Ok the kids names thing is super creepy. I did not know that. You’d think you would try to not have your children named the same thing as their cousins unless it was some kind of historical family heritage kind of thing like Robert F Kennedy the seventh.

      • Becks1 says:

        The name thing doesn’t weird me out as much because I just think W&K lack creativity. Charlotte’s name is Charlotte Elizabeth Diana, not just Charlotte Diana, and she was named after Charles, which is also a family name for the Spencers obviously (and Pippa’s middle name is Charlotte, Kate’s is Elizabeth.) Louis is one of George’s names so W&K didn’t even get that creative with him, just took a name from his older brother.

  8. Becks1 says:

    I mean there’s trying to figure something out slowly (which I think we’re supposed to interpret as meaning “with intent” and “in depth”) and then there’s moving at a glacial pace over 2 decades only to pop up with an initiative and a documentary that is all about him. And we know its about him because he made sure it has his name in the title.

    No one expects him to end homelessness. But we do expect him to have some self-awareness when it comes to this issue (and other issues) and he just completely lacks that. He thinks because he is PRINCE WILLIAM, if he says “lets end homelessness” its over. Same way he ended racism, same way he created peace in the Middle East, same way he solved climate change. He declared it so and in his mind, that’s really enough.

    • Eurydice says:

      Well, that’s how monarchs do things in the movies – they wave their hands and demand. He must be so puzzled as to why this doesn’t work in real life.

    • Tulipworthy says:

      He has a “concept ” of a plan just like a certain American does.

  9. Tessa says:

    William censored his mother’s interview and called her paranoid he cannot play the Diana card now. William needs to stop talking about the homeless is patronizing them

  10. square_bologna says:

    GIVE THEM YOUR MONEY, A$$#OLE! 🤷

    (It’s theirs anyway. You and your whole family are leeches. You’re welcome.)

  11. Tessa says:

    Nobody is asking this man for help. Super privileged man looking at the plight of the homeless then leaving in his helicopter for one of his lavish homes

  12. Agnes says:

    He’s a joke that writes itself. The scraggly-faced fool.

  13. Elaine says:

    Good news for William. He doesn’t have to hurt his two brain cells anymore teying to figure this out. There are actual experts at this and they recommend getting them homes.

  14. Alarmjaguar says:

    I’m so sick of these trumped up fools acting like they are going to figure out a solution. That’s not their job!! There are *experts* who have studied this for years. Maybe talk to them and amplify what they have found. Ugh.

  15. Henny Penny says:

    This guy is something else. Does he ever listen to anyone else’s thoughts or opinions on these topics he knows nothing about, or are these PR stunts as painful for attendees as they appear? I notice in this set of photos, they blurred out or just didn’t show the faces of those he was boring with his arrogant, ignorant pomposity.

    That he allowed his heir to end up so clueless and stupid shows that Charles really was a terrible, terrible father.

  16. Inge says:

    He could let the homeless live in 3 of his 4(or 4 of his 5) mansions. And all the other BRF buildings standing empty for most of the time.

  17. Tennyson says:

    First thing to do in the UK is to make section 21 illegal. Section 21 is called the No-fault Eviction measure: a landlord doesn’t need a reason to evict a tenant after 6 months. A tenant paying his rent can be Evicted and it’s legal. But even Starmer won’t change the law.

    • Christine says:

      That’s awful, I had no idea how little security residents of England have.

    • anotherlily says:

      The Renters’ Rights Bill has passed its second reading in Parliament and is expected to become law next year. This law will abolish Section 21.

  18. tamsin says:

    If there is a picture of William looking relaxed, smiling naturally, and without clenched hands, I wouldn’t have to immediately scroll past it. William must be one of the most self-unaware public figures in the world. I’m starting to have the same reaction to pictures of William as I do to pictures of Trump. I just find them both so repulsive now.

    Harry and Meghan found each other and inspired each other to be greater. Catherine found William and they just bring out the devils in each other.

    • Henny Penny says:

      I honestly think William despises the public and blames them for everything he doesn’t like about his life. He thought Harry was always going to be there doing all the work while simultaneously taking all the media heat while William did in private whatever it is William actually likes to do.

  19. Laura D says:

    I don’t know why but, I think this could backfire spectacularly against William. A FK with countless number of homes and a bottomless money pit telling the country that he will do something about homelessness (albeit slowly), isn’t something the country needs to hear right now. We elected a new government to try and sort out the mess William’s tory friends left behind. So, why William thinks he can do something now beggars belief. Instead of putting out hit pieces against his brother, he should have been lobbying the tory PM(s) and members of the HoL to sort the problem.

    I’m sure the royalists will lap this puff piece documentary up but imho I really don’t think it will have as big an impact as he thinks it will. I do wonder if deep down “they” know this and that’s why there’s not been a concrete release date. If the original trailers are to be believed then this programme has been ready to go for quite a while (in fact William is beardless) yet nothing has been scheduled. I will watch it when it eventually airs but, I think I will be rolling my eyes and tutting when the programme confirms how out of touch our FK really is.

  20. blue says:

    Slow? As in how his brain operates?
    Note to Willy: Shave! your face isn’t built for an attractive beard.

  21. swaz says:

    That documentary is just as useless as William

  22. Lady Digby says:

    At Southport Kate told the meeting of first responders “not to rush back to work” unaware that not everyone enjoys her privilege of taking as much time off to heal as she deems essential. Most of us have to answer to managers and all organizations have an absence management policy. Occupational Health reccommend a suitable phased return for workers ; my organization usually offers 4-6 weeks and reasonable work adjustments as necessary. It is very much on brand for Will and Kate not to rush back to work and to take anything work related slowly!

  23. L4Frimaire says:

    So it’s the concept of a plan.

  24. JC says:

    So he has a concept of a plan. 10 points for Kensington Palace *slow claps*

  25. Ambel says:

    I just stopped by to say that the beard accentuates the fact that he has no hair on top of his head.

  26. maisie says:

    To quote Shakespeare:
    “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
    That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
    And then is heard no more. It is a tale
    Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
    Signifying nothing.”

  27. Lady Digby says:

    This was FK’s one will not be rushed response to tabs dubbing him workshy in 2016
    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/apr/20/prince-william-rejects-do-nothing-royal-tag-i-take-duty-seriously
    Well Kate maybe keen but middleaged Will has always been consistent: he who will not be rushed into developing a role as a modern royal!!

  28. booboocita says:

    Slightly off-topic: Why are there so many photos of Willy with his hands up, balled into fists? It’s like he’s perpetually air boxing or something. Is he trying to emphasize whatever he’s saying at the time, or is there some meaning to the pugilistic stance?

  29. Lau says:

    He sounds like a villain who would just like for poor people to disappear.

  30. yipyip says:

    That has got to be one of the stupidest remarks a man in his position have made, ever.
    William, you tall but empty headed fool.
    You do not need to find the answer yourself.
    You, with your wealth and position alone, can pull together a team of Einstein level experts from across the Globe to find ideas and solutions.
    Some days he goes out of his way to sound like an idiot, doesn’t he?
    Think Tanks and Billionaires, led by the FFK, can you imagine the great results possible?
    He is just a PR face anyhow.
    Real people in so many fields could benefit from his position.
    Diana did a lot of good PR for charity, William is way behind.

  31. Carmen says:

    Any slower and he’d slip into reverse and slide back downhill.