Birmingham City Council welcomes Prince William Homewards ...

Councillor Francis, the Cabinet Member for Housing and Homelessness at the Council, said ‘We will follow the programme carefully and fully support the Prince's aim which is ending homelessness for good – making it rare, brief, and unrepeated. The five-year project, backed by up to £3 million in funding, will give the six flagship locations a much needed boost to showcase what can be achieved through a collective effort focused on preventing homelessness. From our experience we would encourage the focus to be not just on rough sleeping, but the less obvious, but equally challenging and harmful aspects of homelessness, including the number of children and families living in temporary accommodation. Prince William has praised Finland’s ‘Housing First’ model which is already part of a pilot we are trialling with the West Midlands Combined Authority https://www.wmca.org.uk/in-my-area/projects/housing-first/ We look forward to seeing the results of the Homewards project and would welcome the opportunity to network and exchange best practice with the organisers.’