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A comment on If You Can’t Afford the Rent, It’s My Problem, Too. Parent comment

Re:If You Can’t Afford the Rent, It’s My Problem, Too by lmm on Wednesday March 27, 2019 @11:20AM (#19501740)
> You could defray those negative effects by building lots of public housing and/or heavily subsidizing new construction.

To the extent that you actually do that, you will naturally lower the market rent to the level that you wanted, making rent control pointless (except that it removes the signal that would warn you when you need to build more housing).

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Re:If You Can’t Afford the Rent, It’s My Problem, Too by naravara on Wednesday March 27, 2019 @01:59PM (#19503867)
>To the extent that you actually do that, you will naturally lower the market rent to the level that you wanted, making rent control pointless (except that it removes the signal that would warn you when you need to build more housing).

You kind of answered your first clause with your second. Demand can rise very rapidly, but supply can only grow slowly. If you want to keep housing prices stabile for people so they're not being thrown out of their homes or displaced, public housing doesn't address that because you don't get the signal that it's a problem until after the displacement has happened.

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