Prince William Launches 25-Plus-Member Homelessness Data Lab With Salesforce and LandAid at London Tech Week

The Prince of Wales used London Tech Week at Olympia on June 10 to launch the Homelessness Data Lab, a national collaboration of more than 25 organisations convened by his Royal Foundation Homewards programme with Salesforce and LandAid. Corporate partners include Bloomberg, VodafoneThree, Accenture and NatWest Group; homelessness-sector members include Centrepoint, Crisis, the Centre for Homelessness Impact, Community Action Network and Homeless Link, alongside the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and local authorities.

The lab will develop and test data-sharing and early-warning projects across the six Homewards locations — Aberdeen; Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole; Lambeth; Newport; Northern Ireland; and Sheffield — to identify warning signs such as missed bills or children missing school before people reach crisis point. "Prevention is better than the cure," William said, arguing that "if we can stop all that pain, that damage getting done, and that surely is a much better way." Salesforce UK and Ireland chief executive Zahra Bahrololoumi said the lab would run experiments on anonymised historical homelessness data to identify predictable patterns, noting homelessness "is rarely random... which means with the right tools and support, it can be preventable." The launch marks the first time homelessness has featured on the London Tech Week agenda, two years into the prince's five-year Homewards initiative.