Fully agree. I've had front-row seats to the shenanigans that are BMR housing units because my girlfriend qualifies for and has been trying to get, and the only

Fully agree. I've had front-row seats to the shenanigans that are BMR housing units because my girlfriend qualifies for and has been trying to get, and the only conclusion that I can come to is that: (1) It's a "squeaky wheel gets the grease" policy (2) They are just sticking fingers in the cracks in a dam that is leaking everywhere to plug a few holes. The biggest problem with mollifying a large segment of the population with a lottery system is that it legitimizes a solution that never really solves the problem. BMR housing is typically accessible to people with 70-110% of the area's median income. For every unit, there are 100+ applicants, and those are just the ones that are aware of the program's existence. The program is also riddled with fraud, with many applicants misrepresenting their income to be eligible or adding family members to the application even when that family member isn't going to live with them in the unit. The worst effect though is that it removes many people from becoming advocates for re-zoning and building of new units. Each of those 100 people per unit now directs their time and attention towards a lottery system instead of demanding real changes from their representatives in local government. Removing those people leaves the very rich and very poor. The poor know they don't have a chance and are living hand to mouth so they won't participate at all. The rich are either well off enough to be insulated from the issue so they complain but never do anything, or the rich are the property owners extracting rent. Ultimately the only people really participating in numbers are the landlords.