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Using finance to fight homelessness

How bank accounts and clever investments are improving the lives of homeless people.

Bank accounts and clever investment schemes are being used to help improve the lives of homeless people.

In the UK, a number of banks have started offering accounts to homeless people - which until recently were only available to people with a fixed address.

Having a bank account can be a crucial turning point, and we meet a disabled homeless person in one of Britain's biggest cities, who's now able to receive welfare payments as a result.

We also hear from the city of Denver, Colorado, in the United States, where investors were invited to finance a scheme to house people classed as β€˜chronically’ homeless.

If the scheme succeeded in saving money for the City council by keeping those people out of Emergency Rooms and police cells, the investors would get their money back - if the initiative failed, they'd lose their cash. Find out what happened on People Fixing the World.

Presenter: Myra Anubi
Reporter: Daniel Gordon
Production Co-ordinator: Ibtisam Zein
Sound mix: Hal Haines
Editor: Penny Murphy

Image: Hands holding a house (Getty Images)

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24 minutes

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