Can we just stop for a moment and acknowledge the hilarity of Prince William doing some big homelessness project launch in July? He’s about to disappear for three full months of “summer vacation,” but before he disappears, he’s going to tell everyone about his “landmark” project to “end homelessness.” In case you missed the launch of Huevo’s Homewards project last year, he’s spent £3 million of Royal Foundation money and those funds are being parceled out to six homeless shelters/halfway houses. While the donations are fine, my concern was that William was basically adding extra layers of bureaucracy to the system rather than allowing homeless charities to simply administer the funds as needed. Homewards was criticized across the board though, for a variety of reasons, not least of which was William’s arrogant need to center himself as the sole savior of homeless people.
Well, continuing on that theme, William has now done a documentary in which people can see him centering himself in the issue of homelessness. The two-part documentary is called Prince William: We Can End Homelessness. It’s not supposed to come out until the fall, but William is well aware that his brother is about to pick up a major award tonight, so the crack team at Kensington Palace threw together a big speech for William to make today. KP sent out advanced copies of the speech to the British media, and here we go:
The Prince of Wales will say on Thursday that he “truly” believes homelessness can be “ended”, despite it blighting the lives of “far too many people”. Prince William is marking the first year of his project to solve homelessness, which will report its progress in building community links to make homelessness “rare, brief and unrepeated”.
He has recently hosted members of the public who have had “lived experience” of homelessness, inviting them to Windsor to hear more about what needs to be done to help.
At a speech due to be delivered at an event in Lambeth, south London, on Thursday morning, he will say: “Homelessness is a complex societal issue and one that touches the lives of far too many people in our society. However, I truly believe that it can be ended.”
He hopes to “demonstrate that it is possible to end homelessness,” he will add.
The Prince’s Homewards project is working in six UK locations, building a network between the public, private and third sectors to identify the root causes of different forms of homelessness and make progress towards eradicating it in five years. Matt Downie, CEO of homeless charity Crisis and a Homewards sector partner, said of the ethos: “The question isn’t what are our big problems and how can we wallow in them. The question is who can help?”
He added: “We are facing some really, really tough times. Homelessness is going up but actually, the evidence to end homelessness has never been better.”
They released a video, below, which is basically full of testimonials about how Homewards is the most groundbreaking thing ever. They’re also calling this the one-year anniversary of the five-year project… but they’re late. The one-year anniversary was in June. It’s weird that they held this “one year anniversary” keeery for the middle of July, because (as I said) William is about to disappear for three months. One thing I’ll give the film crew is that at least they didn’t lead it off by centering William. At least we’re hearing from the people on the ground, you know?
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
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- The Prince of Wales meeting refugee Mehrshad Esfandiari from Iran and Aiden Bryne manager of Hosford services (left) during a visit to the East Belfast Mission at the Skainos Centre, Belfast, as part of his tour of the UK to launch a project aimed at ending homelessness. Picture date: Tuesday June 27, 2023. . William has set his sights on making rough sleeping, sofa surfing and other forms of temporary accommodation a thing of the past with his initiative called Homewards. The five-year project will initially focus on six locations, to be announced during Monday and Tuesday, where local businesses, organisations and individuals will be encouraged to join forces and develop “bespoke” action plans to tackle homelessness with up to Ł500,000 in funding. Homeless. NO UK USE FOR 48 HOURS,Image: 785623491, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR 48 HOURS- Fee Payable Upon reproduction – For queries contact Avalon sales@Avalon.red London +44 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles +1 310 822 0419 Berlin +49 30 76 212 251 Madrid +34 91 533 42 89, Model Release: no, Credit line: Avalon.red / Avalon
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- HOLYHEAD, UNITED KINGDOM – JULY 09: Prince William, Prince of Wales during an official visit at RAF Valley on July 09, 2024 in Holyhead, United Kingdom. The Price of Wales spent three years stationed at RAF Valley whilst serving as an RAF Search and Rescue pilot between 2010 and 2013.,Image: 888492547, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Chris Jackson / Avalon
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- HOLYHEAD, UNITED KINGDOM – JULY 09: Prince William, Prince of Wales talks to members of the public during an official visit at RAF Valley on July 09, 2024 in Holyhead, United Kingdom. The Price of Wales spent three years stationed at RAF Valley whilst serving as an RAF Search and Rescue pilot between 2010 and 2013.,Image: 888492652, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Chris Jackson / Avalon
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- The Prince of Wales speaks with members during a visit to Mosaic Clubhouse in Lambeth, London, which supports people living with mental health conditions across Lambeth, as part of his tour of the UK to launch a project aimed at ending homelessness. Featuring: William, Prince of Wales Where: London, United Kingdom When: 26 Jun 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Prince of Wales during a visit to the East Belfast Mission at the Skainos Centre, Belfast, as part of his tour of the UK to launch a project aimed at ending homelessness. Featuring: William, Prince of Wales Where: Belfast, United Kingdom When: 27 Jun 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Prince of Wales with Grainia Long, Chief Executive at Northern Ireland Housing Executive, during a visit to the East Belfast Mission at the Skainos Centre, Belfast, as part of his tour of the UK to launch a project aimed at ending homelessness. Featuring: William, Prince of Wales Where: Belfast, United Kingdom When: 27 Jun 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Prince of Wales during a visit to Tillydrone Community Campus, Aberdeen, to spotlight how co-located and joined up community support services can improve early intervention and prevent homelessness, as part of his tour of the UK to launch a project aimed at ending homelessness. Picture date: Tuesday June 27, 2023. Featuring: William, Prince of Wales Where: Aberdeen, United Kingdom When: 27 Jun 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Prince of Wales during a visit to a Pret A Manger store in Bournemouth, Dorset, to meet with national and local businesses pledging their support to the Prince’s Homewards project in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole. Featuring: Prince William Where: Bournemouth, United Kingdom When: 07 Sep 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
Huevo has delusions of grandeur. Getting more and more property for himself. Living off an inherited fortune and then preaches about homelessness. And taxpayers help support huevo.
“Homelessness can be ended” sounds a lot like “The Early Years are important”. Platitudes have never helped anyone. Especially coming from people with a half a dozen homes to live in and nannies, maid, and butlers to help with the children. In addition to a billion dollar inherited portfolio. No shade. I just hate
phonies and poverty pimps.
Who writes this crap for him? How can a drunken, selfish Egg end alllllll the problems that lead to homelessness, drug addiction, poverty wages, broken homes? Sure, Bill.
Me too. Every picture I see here is absolutely too try-hard. He is gross. He thought he could “end” Meghan and Harry too, and is still trying.
I like how he gives himself a timeline: homelessness will end in five years, he’ll fix the earth’s environmental issues in ten years. This ain’t a guy who’s going to devote his life to ANYTHING. Except maybe himself.
So if there’s been one year down, there’s now only four to go. Tick tock, William.
This Telegraph article is even much more sillier than the articles about the Montecitos 🤣🤣🤣
As the announcement points out, “he will say” a lot of nothing! Ending homelessness isn’t about what a person says; it’s about what a person does. Instead of focusing the spotlight on his own work in June, Peggy has once again attempted to take attention away from the Duke of Sussex’s well-deserved award. Peggy keeps telling on himself with this behaviour. Plus, this mostly means nothing, given that taxpayer dollars are now being diluted for Peggy’s second vanity project. Liz knew what worked best: show up often to cut a ribbon or pull back a curtain, dress in bright colours, wave, smile, say almost nothing, and then go home to do whatever the heck you want. These attempts at looking like Harry only remind us that you, Peggy, are most certainly not!
Meanwhile, we’ll evict Uncle Andrew because we need yet another house for the Wales family to use and are keeping the massive apartment in Kensington Palace empty and Anmer Hall as our holiday home.
This is the dumbest sht i’ve heard coming from the person in the worst position possible to be saying something like that. Idiot.
Oh I don’t know… why not donate all the millions you receive each year (for doing SFA) or even the billions your family has amassed…
Yeah it can be ended. By billionaires like you.
Rant. Over.
It’s incredibly weird that this is the issue he takes on…he could literally set up small fiberglass towns with community structures and use the money from the sovereign grant to keep them running which could put a real dent in homelessness…
But that would just emphasise how much they don’t need taxpayer money.
He chose homelessness because it was one of the issues that Diana focused on and he needs some type of link to her so that he can use that whenever he wants to play the Diana card. She used to take them to homeless shelters when they were younger and as usual he needs to use Diana, Harry, his kids or Kate to get attention to anything he does. He no longer has her looks so the only thing he can use is homelessness.
Says the guy with 4 houses, eyeing a 5th one.
I think you under counted: (1) KP; (2) Amner Hall; (3) Adelaide Cottage; (4) House in Scotland; (5) House in Wales; (6) not to mention all the properties he owns as the Duchee of Cornwall landlord; (7) he presumably owns a private island, from which he manages to keep the press at bay by leaking crap about his brother.
Look, no one wakes up expecting William to solve the homelessness crisis. But his hypocrisy is daunting. Moreover, I’ve often wonder how this guy slept at night, knowing that he had all this wealth at his disposal, while his only sibling was living in a dungeon? For all the things that make me despise William and Kate, this one is at the top of the list.
I didn’t know about the island. I read once that Queen Elizabeth owned the land under the ocean surrounding England. With all that real estate and money, Bill might could end homelessness. He’s just going to do it with his considerable brains and savvy rather than his assets.
@therese I think Proud Mary is just speculating about the private island, nothing like that has ever been confirmed. but I think her overall point stands, which is that William probably has more houses than we know about (I mean I had no idea Charles had a house in romania until last year).
Huevo needs to open his own bank account and make it personal if he wants to be taken seriously. He could be acknowledged for his generosity, and hopefully he would then get out of the way and let the adults work.
Kind of rich coming from someone whos family is the largest private landowner in England, and of course the wealth, the absurd number of mansions he has….shall we go on?
Yes, homelessness can be ended but to do so would require significant changes in public policy, including investment in things like expanded social housing, mental health supports, addiction treatment, more programs addressing issues like intimate partner violence and sexual abuse.
Saying we can end homeless without saying any of the other things means nothing. He’s right though in the sense that advocates do have a better sense of what works and there is plenty of evidence.
I wish TOB would just spotlight experts and use his platform that way.
Great points – much like the Early Years, ending homelessness requires more than just waving a wand and saying “I want to end homelessness.” If he’s not advocating for significant changes in public policy, or centering advocates who do that work, then he’s not really doing anything.
But like everything he does, this is about centering William first and foremost. I mean just look at the title of the documentary. Can you imagine if HoI was titled – “Prince Harry – the HEART of Invictus?” It would look self serving and narcissistic (especially considering the point of the documentary was that the real heart was the competitors.)
Came here to say this. My partner works with the homeless where we live and you can’t just throw money at it and wave a magic wand. There needs to be a systematic change and shift in understanding why and how people land up homeless. You need to have wrap around supports for people 24 hours a day to help them out. My partner would like homelessness to end, but saying it and having the buy in from all levels of government, health care, social services, police and so on, is another thing entirely.
In short, Will needs to sit down and not talk about things he knows nothing about.
This is straight out of the Tory/Conservative playbook and it’s nauseating to hear. You there! Stop WALLOWING in your problems, your attitude is your problem! INDIVIDUALLY raise yourself up, INDIVIDUALLY change your INDIVIDUAL mindset and you won’t be homeless!
Nothing about systemic issues like mental illness, poverty, sexism or racism. Nope, it’s all up to YOU, the INDIVIDUAL! And if you just TRY REALLY HARD INDIVIDUALLY, then you can ignore my palaces and helicopters and billions in unearned and stolen wealth…and maybe someday own a flat, hopefully one I own and you can INDIVIDUALLY pay me rent forever!
Meanwhile I’ll throw you a couple bucks – not mine of course, lol what a silly notion, it’s my foundation from donor money! – here and there. Should be fine! Should be all you need, as long as you stop wallowing!
Your post touched on many of the causes for homelessness, mental health, health of family members, drugs, lack of food, joblessness, etc. if this man was serious, as mentioned instead of taking wealth from taxpayers, he could donate this wealth towards this problem, this would be a game changer. All he does is jump from issue to issue, climate change, now homelessness he is so unserious it would be funny if the issues were not so serious. He is just a useless clown.
Point I was going to raise, the donated millions have been donated by other people, nothing but words from William.
Agreed, well said.
Jimmy Carter would actually help build homes. There are organizations that build homes for disabled veterans. William is all talk and has much money and keep a grabbing up new homes.
I’ve read that Bon Jovi and U2 have developed and contribute significantly to social housing projects, large social housing projects, and maintain a genuine ongoing relationship afterwards. I think we can safely say that, additionally, both bands have professional work lives and commitments that would put W to shame.
Sorry i didn’t read the speech. All i can see is Willy Riding Harry’s coat tails once again. Willy has had a huge headstart in life which he did nothing about. coming out every once in a while to sell the big issue, the black guy he is seen hugging when he wants to show he has black friends runs a homeless shelter, he has been associated with for a long time and nothing has come of it. We should have had the studies for why its not a one cap fits all solution,from runaways to falling on hard times.
Comments on X were absolutely scathing. Nobody takes Will seriously because he’s never proven himself to be anything other than self promoting, arrogant fool.
Sounds familiarly like Early Years. So he is going to do studies into the causes of homelessness that have already been done or attach his name to some already done?
And Kate and william not showcasing the real experts and their work. and they take credit for work of others.
All I can see is consultants talking endless waffle in endless meetings and then sending in huge bills at the end of the day. £1M will be gone in months. If he wanted to “fix” homelessness then how about making sure there is employment in the smaller towns, especially in the north of England, so people aren’t moving south looking for work?
Far too practical.
Meh.
William will land on his helicopter get out with security team.spend a few minutes looking concerned and say he will end homelessness go back to the copter then get flown back to one of his lavish homes then plan for a trip to a sports event the next day
So a person who won the genetic lottery and was born to palaces,mansions and land and thus will inherit the throne and then even more palaces,castles,land money,jewels luxury cars and planes knows from what exactly ?He thinks he has some vast knowledge how to stop homelessness-end the monarchy and give back what your family stole for centuries and maybe that will be a decent start.
Well we knew he would have to schedule something, because Peggy only seems to work when Prince Harry is out in public. It is kind of comical to watch because it is becoming very clear that while Prince Harry is literally global while Peggy is just a local boy, the kind that peaked in high school and just don’t have a clue.
Maybe he and his father should work on making rents on their vast estates and holdings affordable, allow property ownership, things like this that don’t require governmental policy changes, which of course we know royals don’t interfere with (wink wink). How easy it would have been to link Heads Together with Homeward and get some real advocacy going, but that would require work and follow through.
PW wants to do only lip service to MH, same as everything else. He isn’t interested in what is involved with serious therapy. He just wants to go on podcasts and say things like walking in the countryside is helpful.
@HeatherC – a very good point, how about a 50% rent reduction across the board Duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster?
The DoCornwall must be in a position to donate extremely generously given the few engagements W&K have carried out this year with all the associated cost savings made.
I suspect that the video and the engagement was originally scheduled for June but had to be postponed for the general election. However to do them now so soon after the election and during the summer seems like an inopportune time to do so. Why not closer to the release of the documentary? I think the plan was to do just that but William put a rush on it after he heard about the ESPYs. As some of us predicted, William was going to make sure that he was seen in and around the 11th July.
Whew. That’s sorted, then. I hope he can bring peace to the Middle East next.
I believe that megalodon is extant, but unseen. I believe that by virtue of the null hypothesis and empirical methodology, no one has definitively proven that there *isn’t* a toy-making workshop at the North Pole that has a woman running it, and a fat dude in a red suit who is the face of it.
What are statements of belief if we do nothing to see them come to fruition? I’ve done as much to prove my theories as Wee Willy Winkie has to prove his.
If the best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour, then he will do nothing of consequence. To put it another way, if he COULD change things, then why hasn’t he? He’s got money, free time, and he sets his own priorities.
He’s done nothing because he wants to yap but not act.
This is so silly. Does anyone actually believe Peg is going to solve homelessness? All talk and no action. An unserious wealth hoarder. He needs to order his subjects in parliament to implement long term policies and programs that are effective & sustainable.
Besides the money, doesn’t the BRF own bunch of lands privately? As a landowner, they can do much much more to lower the numbers. He is always talking big. Obviously I hope he succeeds, but from his work record, he is gonna get glowing articles just from his talk and no one is gonna remember it after a few years. He promised the peace in Middle East, ending racism in football. He still didn’t deliver those. So, I am not holding my breath.
They must have quietly scrapped last year’s ITV fly on the wall style documentary on Will for utter lack of content and decided to latch onto some other organisations to prop him up. Sadly, it all just looks like propaganda for Will with very little results to show for.
William centers himself as the savior of homelessness while Kate is the savior of Early Years.
Oh for the good old fashioned royals like Princess Anne who cut ribbons without costly PR to aggrandize their image
I’m cranky this morning, so I’ll try not to go off, but this is an embarrassingly inane and ignorant statement. Of course we can solve homelessness. Several countries have done it. The problem has never been “can we.” It has always been “do we want to.” And the answer, to our great shame, seems to be “no.” PW is just another dumb show pony thinking he can get credit for trying if he flaps his lips enough.
🎯
Is that really the title of the documentary? LOL. It must have taken all of five seconds to come up with that inanity.
Homelessness is an issue with complexities William couldn’t begin to understand. With his multiple homes, his enormous unearned wealth and his utter of lack of empathy, he’s the worst possible person to be tackling it.
Crap like this just enrages me. If you care do some freakin work! Give up some land! Contribute real money and get all your nobility buddies to do it to! But no, this loser is just going to produce a video about his hopes and sit around masturbating over it while he awaits congrats for his completely empty gesture.
Imagine owning 4/5 homes and saying you can end homelessness lol. Imagine evicting a family member from another home sitting empty now out of spite….
Not only that but also barely contributing any finances yourself to the cause. Instead your building housing so you and your family can continue to profit from the poor people stuck with leases of homes they can’t ever own.
If the British media/rota were really serious they would call out the hypocrisy of this initiative and the comments on Twitter roasting William.
I think he genuinely believes that he can single handedly fix these huge issues. He is delulu due to his upbringing. I think of him screaming at Harry that the rhinos and elephants were “mine”. As if having two high profile individuals on such a huge issue would not have been warranted or beneficial.
Homelessness cannot and never will be ended. This man is speaking tosh. Having worked in regional development and social housing for several years, it’s well known that homelessness is perpetuated by dozens of factors: family breakdown; inadequate follow up to foster care; drug/alcohol use prior to being on the streets and increased afterwards; domestic violence splitting up partners, mainly women from their male spouses; sudden financial loss; lack of targeted housing. And so on and so on. This “homelessness can be ended” rubbish is akin to saying “poverty can be ended with a few food and baby banks”. Homelessness can be eased with proper input but it will never stop, sadly. That’s what he should have said. Otherwise the man sounds like an entitled fool who understands nothing of the real world. I bet every housing officer in the land is laughing his/her head off. Then sighing. I’d love to take him to a housing association for a good few months and let him handle the lists.
ps Sorry. My boss rang! What I wanted to say fully is, the reasons for homelessness stretch so far upwards in the social fabric that dealing with the end product of a family traipsing from one hostel to the next, or someone sleeping on a park bench, fails to understand that this problem is caused by the failure of so many systems that it’s nigh on impossible to correct. Money is required, as is a full assessment of the myriad factors that cause homelessness. I can see it being eased but it will never “end”; society would need one of the biggest overhauls ever, and that isn’t going to happen. This is sadly the reality. My years working in housing left me utterly disillusioned. And deeply troubled. I couldn’t take another call from a woman whose husband had smashed the doors in to get to her, or meeting up with families with simply nowhere to go.
I agree with him. It can be ended but it will take billionaires like him and all the others to stop hoarding wealth. They act as if they earned their wealth. Even the so called self starters used public services and publicly regulated entities/resources to get their businesses off the ground. It’s going to take more than chump change, speeches and hugs to solve it.
Pick up a fucking hammer Willbur. Organize a massive fund-raising campaign with all your filthy rich posh friends. Here on Vancouver Island communities for the homeless are being built using old shipping containers, why not organize efforts like that? While you’re at it organize soup kitchens like José Andrés and others do. There’s so fucking much this a-hole could do with his time and money but no…he just uses his name to look good. It’s not working.
This is just so obvious and immature. But nobody cares, they’ll just keep going on until their own tabloids/BM calls them out completely and when will that happen? Nobody knows if it ever will happen.
It won’t happen, they are too afraid of being knocked of the RR.
It just sounds so condescending. Like none of the experts and organizations that have been working on and studying this for decades could possibly know what they’re doing. Dashing Prince to the rescue, to save them and set things straight!
He was supposed to ending racism in football, too …
He should have a call with Trump’s son in law – this one wanted to solve Middle East conflict, just imagine what they could *accomplish* together!
All I get from this is Willy is ready for his close up, Mr DeMille!
William talks about homelessness like someone who has 7 houses and a billion dollar income and privilege since birth. He doesn’t understand the reasons people end up homeless. He thinks – just get a house!
What is he going to do, reinstate workhouses? Because many people who are homeless are not able to get jobs or keep them. Is William going to
Support all these people with food and shelter? Will he want them to work on his Duchy in exchange? Let’s just reinstitute slavery or indentured servitude while we’re at it then.
Exactly. A random person who have read newspaper 2-3 articles about homelessness has better understanding of complexity of this topic. Willyboy probably thinks: just build a couple of apartment, people move in, homelessness solved!
There is literally no one in his surrounding daring to let him know it is time to shut up and let adults handle it. He should be the face of the action politely repeating talking points received from professionals. The results would probably be very good and we would be spared second hand embarrassment listening to his juvenile speeches.
No-one here has yet mentioned solving the ecologcial criisis/global warming with his brilliant Earthshot– whatever happened to will the environmental savior?And as an American, it’s hard to understand why these people are still on the public dole, and why publications simply repeat their claims– it’s rediculous on the face of it. How abou doing some real journalism and interviewing some real housing activsts and researchers and getting their commentary on what it would take to end the housing crisis? How about asking wiill to comment on major research findings and books?