I'm not against new housing, I bought new construction two years ago. It's in a place that was owned by the city and the locals used it as a park. There is considerable anger that it was allowed to be built in the first place.
I am just not onboard that new housing is the crux of the problem when there are perfectly good existing houses that are being misused. We should fix the exploitation and also build new housing, but focusing only on new housing as a solution misses the problems of renting and airbnb and excessive hoarding by the well-off.
Imagine what would happen to the housing market if people were forced to sell off their excess rental houses and only keep one house. The people who can afford to own these excesses can afford to deal with the consequences of having to downsize.
Look into Vancouvers vacancy tax. People were convinced there were tons of empty houses sitting around and a lot of political capital and bureaucratic effort spent and the result was practically nothing. 500 vacant homes in a city of 2 million is not a meaningful contributor to the housing crisis, and certainly worthless compared to the amount of effort spent on it. It's the tens of thousands of units not being built that's the issue.
No new housing is the crux of issue, but the issue has compounded over the decades. It should have happened 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago. If there had been enough supply back then, the misuse now would not matter.
For past decades we should have been tearing down single family houses near core and replacing them with better density. And building new denser suburbs with good connectivity to core while also offering necessary services for regular living.
I am just not onboard that new housing is the crux of the problem when there are perfectly good existing houses that are being misused. We should fix the exploitation and also build new housing, but focusing only on new housing as a solution misses the problems of renting and airbnb and excessive hoarding by the well-off.
Imagine what would happen to the housing market if people were forced to sell off their excess rental houses and only keep one house. The people who can afford to own these excesses can afford to deal with the consequences of having to downsize.