Prince William has issued a compelling call to the technology sector, urging companies to collaborate in his mission to eradicate homelessness. During London Tech Week, the Prince of Wales described plans to leverage artificial intelligence and data analytics as "game-changing" in the fight against homelessness, making a heartfelt appeal for tech firms to step up and contribute to solving the issue.
A Call for Data-Driven Solutions
Speaking on an on-stage panel, William stated: "Many of your customers, your clients, will be using data through banking apps, through their phones. I'm not sure you realise how much that data can be used to predict and see problems with potential homelessness before they actually arise, so that's why I think today is so important that we get that conversation started." He emphasized that homelessness is not inevitable but entirely preventable, noting that the tech world is a crucial part of the puzzle.
Homewards Project Progress
William remarked that his Homewards initiative, now three years in, is entering a "meaty" phase. He highlighted the diverse causes of homelessness across the UK's six pilot locations, stating: "What's causing homelessness in Aberdeen is not what's causing homelessness in Bournemouth... but there are threads through all of that." He stressed that prevention is better than cure and that the tech industry holds the answers.
Expert Insights on Data Usage
Alongside William, Linda Gibbs of Bloomberg Associates discussed successful data-driven homelessness prevention in the US, citing a Los Angeles project where an alert was triggered for a person who missed benefit collections while gaining custody of grandchildren, leading to restored payments. Zahra Bahrololoumi of Salesforce UK and Ireland emphasized the importance of using data within legal and ethical guidelines to preserve human dignity. Solange Chamberlain of NatWest outlined the bank's new option for customers to declare no fixed address.
Innovative Tools and Demonstrations
At the Homewards stand, William spun a wheel displaying prevention methods, landing on "predictions." He was shown a system merging banking data from 5.4 million anonymous NatWest customers with census data to identify homelessness risks in Scotland. Tim Siret of Smart Data Foundry demonstrated a searchable map of at-risk zones. William called it "game-changing" and asked how to scale the model across the UK.
Chris Parker of Ask:Enact presented an AI prototype that provides frontline police and NHS staff with real-time legislation updates, such as safeguarding details for a 16-year-old stopped by police. William questioned how to make such innovations scalable nationwide.
Collaborative Approach
Hazel Detsiny, executive director of Homewards, stressed the need for businesses to take responsibility alongside the public and third sectors. "We're not fundraisers, we're not trying to compete with the homelessness charities. We've got to be the shoulders for the under charities to stand on," she said.
