Social Housing

There is an affordable housing crisis in many places nowadays.

If many people are moving into a place the free market alone will never provide enough housing for them. It is vital for the government to build some of the housing. Developers would rather work with wealthier people. The Baby Boom, in western countries, would never have been accommodated without government housing. The market takes time to react and build housing, but people need housing immediately.

There are several areas in which the free market does not belong. These are law, medicine and, education.

No country can claim to be a free country if the outcome of a trial depends on how good of a lawyer the defendant can afford.

Health means regular checkups and acting as soon as possible if a medical condition emerges. For this to be possible everyone must have health coverage. A population without health coverage is a lot more expensive in the long term.

No country can be at it's best without all of it's citizens fulfilling their education and skill potential. Having students not going to college because they can't afford it is just going to mean falling behind other countries. There can be expensive schools for those who can afford them but the general population should have access to easily affordable education.

There is another area where the free market has a place but doesn't always handle very well. That area is housing. 

We have already seen, in the compound posting "Economics" , what causes slums. Ironically, it might be why the city was there in the first place. As an example, a city might be built around a good natural harbor. But the harbor takes up space. This makes land, and thus housing, more expensive than it would be otherwise. There are workers whose labor is needed but who cannot afford a place to live, within the market structure, on their wages. So they live in substandard housing that is less-politely known as a slum.

Relying on the market alone for housing brought about the economic crash of 2008. In Florida and the Southwest developers built hundreds of thousands of houses that were sold to people who couldn't afford them.

There is certainly a place for the free market in housing. But more government housing is needed. Few people want to live permanently in social housing, but it is essential to have it there until they can afford a better home. Images from Google Street View.