JAKARTA - Prince William announced new funding of 7.7 million pounds sterling or around Rp182 billion, assuming a rate of Rp23,640.81 per pound sterling. The funds will strengthen Homewards, a five-year program to prevent and reduce homelessness in the UK.
Citing The Mirror report, Tuesday, June 30, the announcement was made ahead of the three-year anniversary of Homewards. The Prince of Wales invited communities, social institutions, and the business world to work together so that the program is able to make homelessness a condition that is less common, short-lived, and not repeated.
In the past year, Homewards has invested £1.9 million in six regions in the UK. The program has also raised £3.5 million through grants and private philanthropy.
Funding has been increased through a partnership worth 2.3 million pounds sterling with The Multibank, DfS, Bosch Home Appliances, IKEA, and B&Q. The partnership provides household furniture for residents who have just moved into a house so that they can maintain their residence and not lose their homes.
The total new funding amounts to 7.7 million pounds sterling. This value does not include a donation of 50 million pounds sterling from Lloyds Bank last year to open new financing for housing providers.
At the project's anniversary event, Prince William will insist that the next two years are a proving ground.
"The next two years are about proving that what works in six locations can work across the country," Prince William said, quoted by The Mirror.
He also emphasized that homelessness is not merely an individual problem, but a systemic problem.
"If the system creates problems, then the system can also help prevent it," he said.
Prince William launched Homewards as a five-year program to develop a model for dealing with homelessness that can be widely applied in the UK, even in other countries.
The program has now entered the second half. The next focus is to expand the solution that has proven to be effective so that more residents can get houses, jobs, and assistance early.
The Mirror reported that Homewards has reached more than 2,400 people through schools and communities. The program has also helped more than 250 people find jobs and helped more than 73 individuals and families find decent housing.
The issue of homelessness has been a concern for the heir to the British throne since childhood. He once revealed that a visit to a shelter with his late mother, Princess Diana, left a deep impression and encouraged him to make the issue one of the main focuses of his activities.
Homewards is being run in six pilot areas, namely Newport, Lambeth, Belfast, Aberdeen, Sheffield, and three towns in Dorset, namely Poole, Bournemouth, and Christchurch.
In addition to helping residents obtain housing and employment, this program builds a system so that the risk of someone losing their home can be recognized faster so that preventive measures can be taken before the condition worsens.
Dr. Peter Mackie, Executive Director of the Institute of Global Homelessness and member of the Homewards National Expert Panel, said the initial results of the program showed that cross-sector collaboration, data utilization, and the experiences of survivors were able to reduce the risk of homelessness through earlier interventions.
Meanwhile, Executive Director of Tunawisma The Royal Foundation, Hazel Detsiny, said Homewards is starting to show results even though it has only been halfway through the program.
According to Detsiny, Prince William always asks the same question in every meeting, namely how the success of the program will be measured at the end of five years and how the impact can last in the long term.
He admitted that Homewards does not have all the answers. However, early signs and evidence of an effective approach to preventing homelessness are beginning to emerge.
Over the past three years, Prince William has visited all Homewards locations to see the progress of the program. The campaign is also supported by a number of public figures, including Fara Williams, Gail Porter, Tyrone Mings, Geri Horner, Sir Bryn Terfel, and Sara Cox.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
