After reading the assigned readings, I am all for building public housing. Having affordable housing is crucial to the economy of an area. As Bloom explained, “For a global city to remain competitive… it requires, at least, the housing stock and well-connected transit systems to support a diverse labor force,” otherwise, people are going to look elsewhere for work (Owens). For this reason, I also support rent controlled portions of building complexes.It allows individuals and families of certain incomes to be able to live in a space that would allow them to improve the qualities of their lives and work while being less burdened with rent prices. I know rent controls are disliked by building owners but I believe that they will be beneficial to the economy in the long-run.

Many would argue that the government does not have enough funds or space to build new public housing buildings. This may be true and for that reasonI would propose another idea. A lot of money goes into building new living spaces but I don’t think enough goes into maintaining existing apartments. “…Untended disrepairs in older complexes mount, leading 10,000 lost units each year” (Owens). By putting money into maintaining the older complexes, there can be more apartments available to people and families and this can financially better for the government. Instead of spending tons of money on building new complexes from scratch, the government should focus some of their attention on fixing what they already have.