Economists and policy makers don't work in a competitive environment the way that software developers do. The arena is also extremely political, unscientific,

Economists and policy makers don't work in a competitive environment the way that software developers do. The arena is also extremely political, unscientific, and uncompetitive--no matter how much effort the field of econ has put forth in arguing that they are scientific, primarily through quantifying the study of economics, if you can't experiment, test, observe and reproduce you're not doing science. And no one ever was untrustworthy or incorrect using math and statistics, right? Nobody gets to make a hypothesis and conduct an experiment on 32 Seattles. Without the scientific method, I've come to learn not to expect much from the human race, what there is to see here is mostly just politics. Add to that a lack of competition (very high barriers to entry, little incentive structures to get involved seriously) in the market space for creating affordable housing... What we're left with is programs that are highly political and even often run counter to what most economists themselves would argue for: market-based solutions, lump-sum transfer payments(or at least in the form of housing vouchers), or no intervention at all.