Isn’t It Time To Convert Buckingham Palace To a Homeless Shelter?

Adebayo Adeniran
4 min readJun 4

A radical solution to Britain’s homelessness crisis.

Image via Wikimedia Commons

London is in the grips of a major homelessness crisis.

Scratch that.

The United Kingdom is in the grips of a major homelessness crisis.

Over the course of the last 13 years, we have seen the absolute immiseration of millions of people in and around the country.

We have had the austerity cuts, bedroom tax, Brexit, the pandemic, the explosion in energy bills and a cost of living crisis.

For Gen Zs and millennials, this is the worst possible time to exist; these are quite possibly first generation of Brits, who are worse off on every metric than their parents.

And the supreme paradox here is that there are many luxury apartments in the capital city of the UK, which are completely empty.

Of course we know that these properties were purchased by nameless, faceless folks who’ve chosen to launder their money in the United Kingdom.

These Russian and Nigerian oligarchs have unwittingly driven up the cost of properties thus making it near impossible for the younger generation to rent or dream of buying their own house in their lifetime.

And when we add the reluctance of the Conservatives to address this longstanding issue into the mix, only then do we start to appreciate how much of a radical solution is needed right now.

And where best to look than the official residence of the head of state: Buckingham Palace.

The new monarch — King Charles III — in his first pronouncement in the immediate aftermath of his mother’s passing talked about making much of the family assets available to the wider public.

And if the new king is serious on putting his money where his mouth is, there isn’t a better place to start with than his official residence.

Now what exactly do you mean by that, I hear you ask?

By opening up the palace to the public.

Buckingham Palace is an utter monstrosity. We are talking about an edifice which has 775 rooms, where not one single royal —minor or major —reside in.

Adebayo Adeniran

A lifelong bibliophile, who seeks to unleash his energy on as many subjects as possible