This is a lot like Singapore's HBD, which builds lots of public housing. And you're right, it's the absolute nightmare of people in SF who say they want non-market housing, precisely because it means new housing and new buildings.

However, it's a generally popular idea, that if put to a majority vote could pass. It's individual small groups that would stop it, because city politics are highly undemocratic and controlled by small factions.

However, there's hope at the state level to make this possible. I'm hopeful that in the coming legislative session there will be some serious attempts at state-level public housing to alleviate our desperate shortage.