Prince William launches Homewards project to tackle homelessness

Prince William is launching a project to help tackle homelessness in the UK.

The five-year plan, called Homewards, will see six towns and cities work together with local organisations to help find places to live for homeless people.

Each night around 300,000 people in the UK are homelessness, half of whom are children.

"It's a big task" said Prince William "but I firmly believe that by working together it is possible to make homelessness rare, brief, and unrepeated and I am very much looking forward to working with our six locations to make our ambition a reality."

The Prince of Wales chatted to some people in Lambeth, London, about the project

The Prince of Wales's charitable foundation is donating £3m in funding for the Homewards project which is backed by charities who aim to help homeless people - such as Shelter, Centrepoint and Crisis.

He said he has drawn inspiration for the project from the country Finland, and the way it has helped to reduce the number of people without homes in the country.

Although the project will begin in six towns and cities in the UK the Prince hopes that if it is a success, then the work done in these places can be repeated in other areas of the UK too.

Prince William said: "I am fortunate to have seen first-hand the tireless work of people and organisations across the sector, the tangible impact their efforts can have and what can be done when communities are able to focus on preventing homelessness, rather than managing it.

The prince hopes if the pject is successful it can be introduced into other parts of the UK

Prince William has faced criticism about his involvement in decisions about homelessness, with those opposing this pointing to his significant wealth and number of homes he owns.

Graham Smith, of the anti-monarchy group, Republic said: "The last thing we need is for William to get involved in this issue, a man who has three huge homes and a vast estate gifted to him by the state."

Republic argue homelessness is about government policy and investment and will not be "resolved by charity or royal patronage".

However, Matt Downie, chief executive of homeless charity Crisis, said he had spoken to the Prince of Wales about the project and his authenticity - which means a person is being genuine or real - and his commitment to it.

"People who are experiencing homelessness can smell when someone's not authentic. I certainly can see the difference between people who want to associate for PR purposes in this issue and people who are genuinely driven by righting one of society's wrongs, and I saw that deeply there," said Mr Downie.