Housing vacancy is essentially a red herring when it comes to the housing crisis. Vacancy rates are still low overall, and reducing vacant housing would barely

Housing vacancy is essentially a red herring when it comes to the housing crisis. Vacancy rates are still low overall, and reducing vacant housing would barely make a dent in the issue. The real issue is that there isn't enough supply for a given level of demand (i.e. how many people there are who do or would like to live there). Cities have added way more people than they've added housing units over the past several decades.