By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Prince William on Wednesday told the London Tech Week conference that Homelessness in the UK is “entirely preventable” with the application of AI-supported technology,
The heir to the British throne spoke following the unveiling of Homelessness Data Lab by his homeless charity, Homewards, a national collaboration it said can improve how data and technology flag “clear warning signs long before” someone loses their home.
He said this could involve the sharing of personal data on an individual’s finances, welfare benefits and health between different bodies, prompting some cautionary comments elsewhere at London Tech Week surrounding data privacy.
“Homelessness is not inevitable, it is entirely preventable, it is predictable,” William said during a panel discussion.
The prince said “data and the technology” can be used “to keep people in their homes, their jobs, their communities, families, at school”.
“In life, prevention is better than the cure,” the royal told a packed conference hall.
Homewards says there are more than 430,000 people in the UK experiencing homelessness, half of whom are children.
Dan Hughes, a trustee of the property sector charity LandAid that is partnering with Homewards to deliver the data lab, cautioned that data privacy needed to be respected while seeking to tackle homelessness with the help of tech.
“We can throw huge amounts of data at solving this, but a lot of it is about individuals and people,” he told a separate London Tech Week event Wednesday.
“We need to make sure that we take best practice on personal data and how we can leverage that information without risking privacy.”
