I would rather find some mechanism that separates everyone who wants to just earn towards a shelter that they can stick around in when they reach their old age,

I would rather find some mechanism that separates everyone who wants to just earn towards a shelter that they can stick around in when they reach their old age, all into one market, and ring-fence everyone else with a profit motive into their own market where they can duke it out among themselves the real estate game. For example, the capitalization and sophistication of commercial players lets them efficiently and systematically harangue tax assessors into lowering property taxes far below what normal individuals with just their own residential property can accomplish. Those kinds of advantages accrue in many other areas, and are out of reach of individuals due to sheer scaling differences. But it's the individuals that incur lots of collateral damage over the course of a long period. LVT is part of a solution, but I'm still looking for a way to address that scaling differential. I think housing co-ops are onto the start of such a solution, but I'm not convinced in their current form that they are appropriate to use for addressing the scaling issue.