The UK is experiencing the worst homelessness crisis in living memory: more than 350,000 people across Britain now lack a permanent home. In June 2023, Prince William launched a Royal Foundation, Homewards, to “demonstrate that together it’s possible to end homelessness – making it rare, brief and unrepeated”. Prince William: We Can End Homelessness, ITV1’s two part documentary, followed Homewards’ inaugural year.
“I can’t pretend I understand homelessness,” Prince William said, speaking from Kensington Palace, in an antique-filled room that was the very definition of quiet luxury. It might have been a little tasteless, but at least the Prince made made no attempt to deny his tremendous privilege. “Why else would I be here, if I’m not using this role to influence and help people where I can?”
William was inspired by his mother, the late Diana, Princess of Wales, who had a long and close relationship with homelessness charities. He recalled, affectingly, accompanying his mother on her visits to homelessness charity The Passage from an early age, and his interviews cut between footage of him returning to make and serve their Christmas lunch. He has felt tremendous guilt “that I’m not doing more to help.”
The cameras followed William attending a meeting with leaders of the five leading homelessness charities in the UK: Shelter, Crisis, The Big Issue, Centrepoint and The Passage. He met outreach workers and those who have been, and are, homeless and heard the success story of the now-stable Wayne. Once an addict on the streets, Wayne was now settled in a house and back in contact with his family. Then there was Sabrina Cohen-Hatton, a firefighter who had experienced homelessness and who was now shining bright as a Homewards advocate.
William revealed that he wants to be “the little bit of glue” that can hold these five charities together, to help them bring in new networks and partners. He has given money – half a million pounds – from The Royal Foundation to six different locations around the UK, and he hopes to bridge the gaps between different areas of social care, for, as Wayne’s outreach officer says, there’s no point putting someone in a house if you can’t offer them support.
But what this documentary made frustratingly clear is that, aside from the money and the visibility Prince William can give, there is little he can do. Constitutionally, the royal family has to remain politically neutral. And so, this documentary is frustratingly neutral, too.
There are moments when reality slips past the tight editorial control. The CEO of Shelter, Polly Neate, makes the point that homelessness in the UK has become “a systemic, societal issue”. But the film didn’t go on to explain how we got to this point or – just as importantly – how it can be changed.
For if homelessness in the UK is to end, we need to know why it is at an all-time high. We need to know why the joined–up care that Wayne needed is not being provided by the state. We need to know what has happened to local council funding. We need to know about austerity and inflation, how the rise in the gig economy has left incomes fluctuating and insecure.
We need to know about cutbacks to social services, how the NHS is struggling to provide frontline care, the burden on GPs. We need to know about investment in and the building of social housing. Of these issues, and the many more that have contributed to the crisis William has announced his intention to solve, there was nothing. It made for dismal television.
The contributors talked of hope, but what this documentary was missing was anger. William is clearly committed to his cause, but he simply cannot galvanise his audience at the ballot box, in the workplace, and in the wider social arena to fix this inhumane problem once and for all. As an hour of factual television that was supposed to prove it is possible to end homelessness, this documentary was an abject failure.
‘Prince William: We Can End Homelessness’ continues tomorrow at 9pm on ITV1