If we are serious about moving toward a saner housing future, the options in terms of federal policy are relatively clear: we can prevent land from becoming subject to market forces, either through government ownership of land (housing projects) or through heavy regulation (rent or land-price control), or we can prevent the ever-increasing value of land from displacing people (programs such as Section 8 vouchers would fall in this category of solution). Instead, we do almost nothing and hope the market works it out.
