In NYC, the problem is a severe shortage of low to middle income housing units, whether that be market-rate or public housing. Every new building that pops up i

In NYC, the problem is a severe shortage of low to middle income housing units, whether that be market-rate or public housing. Every new building that pops up is a luxury building - serving as an investment or pied-a-terre for rich foreigners or front for money laundering. Our mayor's plan to expand affordable housing is to have these luxury building developers set aside a percentage of these luxury units to house low income people in their luxury buildings, which obviously is an extraordinarily inefficient way to provide affordable housing and doesn't even come close to meeting the demand. Since private developers aren't building apartments catering to low income people, the government needs to step in and develop them themselves. High-rises with barebones utilitarian apartments. Get rid of this 150 square feet mandate on living rooms, living rooms are a luxury already as it is since most tenants erect makeshift walls to convert them into additional bedrooms to make the rent affordable. The units should be market-rate, but governments will prioritize applicants who are U.S. citizens, have children, don't have a criminal record, etc. If they were to sell as condos, then priority would be given to first-time homebuyers and people who actually will live in the place. A certain percentage can be allocated to low income people, but unlike current public housing, you shouldn't be able to just live there forever, especially if your income increases to a point where you're no longer low income. The main idea is that we need to increase the supply of non-luxury apartments to compensate for the failure of the private markets to do the same. This would be similar to public housing, except that it would have market-rate apartments.