spoiler
Atlanta just closed the first deal with its new housing production fund; it’s actually a private project, though a local official says they hope to eventually finance publicly owned housing.
Other places that have considered or taken up the idea — sometimes called social housing, as it’s referred to in Europe — include New York and Massachusetts, as well as Chicago and Chattanooga, Tenn.
It has to be federally funded for it to work everywhere, local Governments are so financially constrained. But I suppose funding genocide is more important.
It definitely does not have to be federally-funded. Lots of West Coast cities, in the US, are beyond flush, and mixed-income housing is a good investment, especially when you, as a government, have various advantages over private businesses (no property tax, reduced borrowing rate, and streamlined permitting).
Portland, Oregon's homeless services budget was $35m last year and none of it went to new public housing.
It's not exactly reinventing public housing, more like reinventing the British experience of building housing and then renting it out to far fewer people in need than you first said (before selling it off)
