We definitely agree that providing supply is important – where zoning comes in is regulating the type of housing that is built. We need to incentivize development that folks without outsize incomes will actually be able to afford to purchase or rent – that excludes luxury developments and single-family houses in many cases.

In Canada, through zoning/permitting, our municipal governments can mandate that a certain proportion of a development should be social housing, for example. In order to build, the developer has to agree to those terms. The problem is, such permitting/zoning levers aren’t used as often or effectively as they should be, due to lack of political will. The politicians like the tax dollars they get from all the mad flipping.