In Soviet Union everyone worked for the state and the state decided on the wages. Wages, consequently, were shitty, just enough to make ends, and the rest were

In Soviet Union everyone worked for the state and the state decided on the wages. Wages, consequently, were shitty, just enough to make ends, and the rest were put where state wanted it to be, mostly into arms race and military budget, then into Party means, and the rest into social projects, including housing. Think of it as a universal welfare, when there are no market-driven actors to produce better quality goods and services, and everything is just shitty enough to not do harm to consumers. US homelessness is not caused by shortage of housing. There's tons of cheap housing in US, but people just don't want to live where housing is cheap. California's problems are mostly caused by commie-like government and money they put into non-working social programs. Actually, if they keep doing that for several more decades they may end up in a next level USSR.