The Prince of Wales got stuck in helping a tenant furnish his new flat
The Prince of Wales has contributed to turning a flat into a home, declaring his project to prevent homelessness can be “embedded” across society.
Marking the third year of his five-year Homewards initiative, Prince William has helped furnish a new flat to make it into a home for a housing association tenant. The flat, in Aberdeen, is in one of the six areas of the country where William is trying to create a template to eradicate all forms of homelessness.
The future king carried a dining room chair up three flights of stairs to the one-bedroom flat on the outskirts of the city, with Langstane Housing Association staff fetching the other three. He was also given a brief tour of the accommodation.
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In a major speech at London’s Tate Modern earlier, William spoke about the progress made since he launched Homewards in 2023. He said: “Three years on, Homewards has helped more than 73 people into stable housing, supported more than 250 people into employment and reached thousands before they reached crisis.
“These aren’t just statistics. They are people who have a home, a job, and a future that looked very different only a few years ago.
“And crucially, people are being supported earlier, in schools, in the workplace, in their communities, so homelessness never becomes part of their story. Across our work, we’ve helped thousands of people to reduce their risk of falling into crisis.
“By trialling new approaches, Homewards is demonstrating how prevention can be embedded across every part of our society. Proving that our true strength emerges not in isolation, but in a shared purpose that makes us greater than the sum of our parts.
“Where services work together around people’s lives, rather than in silos.”
Homewards works in six locations – Newport, Lambeth, Belfast, Aberdeen, Sheffield and the three neighbouring Dorset towns of Poole, Bournemouth and Christchurch – with the aim of delivering bespoke solutions to homelessness issues in each area.
Over the past three years, Homewards has invested £1.9 million across its six locations. Organisers also said another £3.5 million has been leveraged through grants and private philanthropy, while a further £2.3 million worth of surplus goods has been used to furnish Homewards homes.
The furniture in the Aberdeen flat, whose tenant will sign their agreement with Langstane on Wednesday, was provided by organisations and businesses like Ikea who are supporting the prince’s homeless initiative. They also donated cleaning products and home appliances like vacuum cleaners and air fryers.
In the housing association’s offices, close to the flat he visited, William also filled a bag-for-life destined for a new home with cleaning products. As he worked, he said: “All that makes them feel like it’s a home, not somewhere they’ve got to stay.”
When Helen Gauld, Langstane’s chief executive, mentioned air fryers the balding prince also joked “some of us don’t need hair dryers”.
The event follows Princess Kate also taking on the gruelling Three Peaks Challenge this weekend, which she completed to raise money for a cancer charity and to “explore life beyond diagnosis”. Following the challenge, Kate also made a donation an an 11-year-old wheelchair user, named Ted, who she met while climbing Ben Nevis.
Donating to Ted’s cause on Just Giving, she left a message which read: “One of the real highlights of the Three Peaks Challenge was meeting inspiring people like you along the way. Huge congratulations to Ted, Pete and the entire team for raising money for such a wonderful cause.”
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