Prince William teams up with Gordon Brown to make huge announcement | Royal | News
Prince William’s Homewards initiative has launched a major new partnership with the Multibank charity, whose chairman is former Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
The charity will be a key supporter or Activator to support Homewards’ aim to show that ending homelessness is possible, making it “rare, short and non-recurring”. Multibank has agreed to deliver 250 of the first homes delivered through Homewards’ Innovative Housing Projects, as Prince William continues to build homes in six focus areas across the UK. [IHPs].
Using scalable solutions to really make a difference, Homewards focuses on six areas across the UK: Lambeth, Bournemouth, Newport, Belfast, Aberdeen and Sheffield in South London.
Each location focuses on helping a specific group. For example, in Aberdeen the spotlight is on single people and young people under 25, while Northern Ireland aims to help women experiencing chronic homelessness.
This ambitious new partnership will deliver new surplus products to create homes for people at risk of homelessness, a furniture offering supported by major retailers B&Q, Bosch Home Appliances, DFS Group and IKEA.
The partnership was announced after research showed people were 12.5% more likely to maintain a tenancy if they were provided with furniture and essentials. These items help transform vacant properties into safe and secure homes and prevent repeat homelessness.
William’s decision to team up with Mr Brown’s charity comes after they attended a panel together in July to discuss how we can help those “screwed up by society”.
At the event, Mr Brown compared William’s work ethic and determination to make a difference to his late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales. “I think it changes people’s perspective on homelessness and what can be done about it.
“Remember, her mother changed people’s views about AIDS, her mother changed people’s views about land mines, and I think she changes people’s view that you have to think of a homeless person as an individual with potential, who if given the proper chance can actually make something of their life, not as someone to be looked down upon as a decadent.
“It has such great convening power… so I think we’re going to see something pretty big here.”
