Prince William’s sweet tribute to Diana

William has announced a sweet tribute to his mother inspired by her commitment to charity, saying she “opened his eyes” to homelessness.

Prince William has announced a sweet tribute to his mother. Picture: Supplied.

Prince William has announced a sweet tribute to his mother, inspired by Lady Diana’s commitment to ending homelessness.

William launched on Monday a new UK-wide initiative aiming to show that it is possible to end homelessness and make it “rare, brief and unrepeated”, Kensington Palace announced.

William, 41, and his charitable Royal Foundation will help give six flagship locations across Britain “space, tools and relationships” to work on preventing homelessness locally.

Promising a “transformative approach” to the issue, the five-year initiative — dubbed Homewards — will try to create a “tried and tested model that can be scaled across the UK and beyond”.

It includes up to £500,000 (A$950,000) of flexible seed funding per location.

Prince William launched on Monday a new UK-wide initiative aimed at ending homelessness. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

The initiative aims to unlock “unprecedented partnerships” and boost understanding of homelessness, having launched alongside research that said one in five people in Britain had some experience of sleeping rough.

“In a modern and progressive society, everyone should have a safe and secure home, be treated with dignity and given the support they need,” William said in a statement.

“Through Homewards, I want to make this a reality and over the next five years, give people across the UK hope that homelessness can be prevented when we collaborate.

“It’s a big task, but I firmly believe that by working together it is possible to make homelessness rare, brief and unrepeated and I am very much looking forward to working with our six locations to make our ambition a reality.”

William said his mother “opened his eyes” to the reality of homelessness. Picture: David Levenson/Getty Images

Earlier this year, William opened up on a podcast with homeless charity Groundswell, saying his commitment to the cause was inspired by his late mother.

“I’ve been interested in homelessness ever since my mother took me, age about eight or nine to The Passage, which is a homelessness charity which I’m now very honoured to be patron of,” he said.

“I think it opened my eyes to slightly some of the challenges that face people in all walks of life … I think a lot of people live in bubbles … so I’m really grateful that my mother took me and showed me another part of society that I probably wouldn’t have had exposure to.”

The Prince of Wales continued: “It piqued an interest at the time mainly also because the kind of characters I met were incredible. They were wonderful people. And the stories … gradually as my interest has got deeper interest and I’ve spent more time talking to people, I’ve always come away hugely inspired from what I’ve heard.”