• Social housing programs exist all around the world and they work well for keeping the cost of living down when managed right. Neither 100% private nor 100% public housing works, but “if you want the state to own real estate you end up with the USSR” is a stupid take.

    As for the “you pay with it in your taxes” argument, you also pay for the homeless problem with your taxes, and giving stable (i.e. non-addicted) homeless a place to live is actually cheaper than waiting for them to get addicted and lose all future job prospects from looking like a hobo. If you want to save taxes, you want regulated, extremely cheap housing.