1) Give the poor enough money that housing will be affordable. 2) Subsidise housing directly. 3) Change regulations so building affordable housing will be pro

1) Give the poor enough money that housing will be affordable. 2) Subsidise housing directly. 3) Change regulations so building affordable housing will be profitable. There's nothing fancy or unusual about housing. The poor might struggle to afford food, so we give them money (eg, via EITC) so they can afford food, we give them food directly (in the form of vouchers, such as food stamps) so that they have food, and we use industrial policy to ensure that food will be cheap and available, so they can afford food. This works pretty well! Food is very cheap in the US, to the extent that many people suggest we've gone too far and made it too cheap and available. Note that at no point does "invest city pensions funds in a slush fund to make loans to people wanting to build artisanal dairies" come up, because that's actually not going to solve the problem.