Banks and housing and social engagement in Europe

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Ok, this thought been going through my head for a while now.

There are many tax-paying low wage earners struggling to keep a decent roof over their head. They don't get benefits or hand-outs and as such are considered too well-off to be allocated affordable social housing (Netherlands being an exception but defintly the case in Belgium and the UK).

Banks as social landlords?
Is it feasible?
Could they make a profit if they supplied tennants with say up to 50-yr leases hence providing an alternative to house buying?
The tennant would have a secure tennancy with a non-interfering landlord on the whole, the bank would have a long-term income.
The banks could use the houses they acquire through repossesion/foreclosure as a way of building up housing stock.
And they would put something back into the society that helped them keep afloat when times went bad for them

I live in Europe anyway, not familiar with the situation in the US

Any thoughts?