For many housing experts, advocates and municipal officials, the seeds of today’s housing crisis were planted with a policy shift in the federal government decades ago. It got out of building social housing, leaving a deficit of non-market housing that people could afford.
In the early nineties, we either ‘crown-corped’ or outright sold public services to private industry. It saved a ton of money for the government at that time, but I feel like we have come to a ‘pay-the-piper’ moment. It is rather unjust that the people who made those decisions will not be the ones paying the price though.
A not-so-subtle reminder that private industry does what is best for private industry. If there is a public interest in a certain good or service, then lo and behold, you probably want it managed by the public. It’s not rocket science, folks.