Abstract
For nearly 20 years, Homeless International has supported international partner organizations that work with slum communities to reduce poverty and improve living conditions. Its support has increasingly focused on partner organizations that are members of the Shack/Slum Dwellers International (SDI) network. The support has changed over time in response to the changing demands, but has increasingly been in the form of what Homeless International terms “financial services” — essentially, helping partners to access increased levels of capital to finance slum development projects on a growing scale. Homeless International now has a range of financial services that it provides to partners, depending on their stage of development and consequent needs. These include the Community-Led Infrastructure Finance Facility (CLIFF), which currently provides large-scale venture capital grants to partners in three locations; a guarantee facility that can encourage and persuade local banks to lend to partners for slum development; and a new mechanism that heralds the start of Homeless International lending directly to partners. This profile discusses only the financial services work of Homeless International and not the broader activities of the organization..
