This is my plan: I live in a walk-able neighborhood of small Craftsman-style houses in an unremarkable, mid-size US city. It's great for kids because they can walk to the park and meet neighborhood kids roaming sidewalks, but it's terrible for getting work done with kids at home. Thankfully, there's available office space over old retail nearby, which rents for really reasonable prices and can fit a desk each for me and my wife.

I think public policy experts sorely underestimate how many individuals have more than 1 apartment for themselves.

Here in Los Angeles, I know a handful of people that have apartments in radically different parts of the city, just for practicality and convenience. Just renting. Nothing anybody brags about given how awkward struggling people will make that, but if you got it like that there is no reason to experience LA, you can totally exempt yourself from the commutes and hellishness and have somewhere to decompress in whichever part of the city you are in. I've sublet for months this way too, while retaining a headquarters that I rent elsewhere.

and how many of those are rent controlled and in jurisdictions where housing is in short supply and homelessness is on the rise

I detest these types of arguments. People renting multiple apartments may be a part of the problem but surely the main cause is an undersupply of housing. Homelessness is not caused by this person renting multiple units.

It’s like when SF kept reminding that I needed to ask for a water refill because we need to conserve water while farms in the Central Valley are using the majority of it.

In your example, being reminded of a water refill is marginally annoying. It’s a minor inconvenience.

When it comes to housing, a singular human priced out of housing is someone who becomes homeless

Disagree.

More housing needs to be built in your scenario. It is not on the shoulders of the demand side. More housing needs to be built and it needs to be built now. We should be guilting the communities that have prevented development from happening. Not John Doe who rents two apartments.

Part of my point was that renting two apartments can be a solution to a family not having a bigger single apartment. So many people move out of cities because they need more room. So I wanted to point out that there are ways to stay in a city with a family.

I totally understood. Was not a fan of the poster responding to you, claiming you made someone homeless.