Prince William set for homeless visit as photo of Kate published

Image source, Cameron Smith/PA Media

Image caption, Prince William drew a crowd in Sheffield last summer, as he launched the Homewards project

By Sean Coughlan

Royal correspondent

The Prince of Wales will visit housing initiatives in Sheffield on Tuesday to promote his homelessness project.

It comes as the Sun published a photo of Catherine, Princess of Wales, on a shopping trip with Prince William.

After being out of public sight since Christmas, she looked relaxed and smiling in video images from a farm shop in Windsor.

The prince will be hoping the focus will return to one of his personal causes.

The prince and princess have had a difficult start to the year, with Catherine having abdominal surgery and spending time in recovery. She is expected to return to royal duties after Easter.

Her recovery has been the subject of widespread conspiracy theories and rumours by internet sleuths. This was heightened after the controversy over an edited Mother’s Day picture.

There was confusion over the first authorised photograph of the princess since Christmas, which was withdrawn by photo agencies following concerns it had been digitally altered.

On Monday night, the Sun and other newspapers published a photo of the royal couple shopping near their home in Windsor at the weekend, taken from a video clip supplied by a member of the public.

These images showing Catherine looking well, relaxed and back on her feet might be expected to stop the wave of online speculation.

But royal commentator Caroline Aston said that these latest pictures could still be the subject of fresh conspiracy theories on social media.

She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that this won’t help Catherine’s recovery from surgery.

“Recovery can be long and hard and it’s a mental struggle too and, frankly I don’t think recent events will have helped the princess’ recovery that much,” she said.

With his trip to Sheffield, Prince William will want the emphasis to be on one of his most important projects – an ambitious five-year scheme to tackle homelessness based at six location around the UK and launched last year.

Image source, Cameron Smith/PA Media

Image caption, Prince William visited a youth project in Sheffield as part of the launch of Homewards

That includes Sheffield, where the prince will meet people who have faced housing insecurity and hear about some of the projects addressing what seems to be a worsening problem.

The Homewards homelessness initiative is Prince William’s “flagship project” and he takes a close personal interest in how its local partnerships are developing, a royal source says.

To coincide with the visit, the DIY chain Homebase is donating 1,500 “starter packs” of furniture, paint and other items to help families moving into new accommodation.

Helping to organise the packs will be housing campaigner Kwajo Tweneboa, who said: “Safe, permanent and secure housing is paramount to ensure homelessness does not become part of a family’s story.”

Making families feel comfortable and “supporting their wellbeing” was also proven to reduce future homelessness.

The prince’s visit will also see support from some of the Sheffield’s landlords, with 33 three and four-bedroom properties being made available for “families on the brink of or experiencing homelessness”.

The approach of the Homewards project is to bring together grassroots organisations, charities and commercial partners to form local coalitions.

The scale of the problem in Sheffield was highlighted by annual figures showing 4,000 people or families had applied to be registered as homeless, the council’s highest figure so far and up 500 on the previous year.

Last month, the government announced £3m in funding for Sheffield City Council to tackle rough sleeping and homelessness.