[ChuckNorris89]

Why does the city/country not invest that money in affordable housing first?

Handing out a few bucks to artists will not fix the main issues of why artists and all low wage workers can't survive anymore in today's cities, namely, unaffordable housing.

Europe's biggest cultural centers (London, Paris, Amsterdam, etc.) have turned into the playground of foreign billionaires, real estate speculators and >six-figure income law-, management-consulting-, finance- and tech- bros, with rents skyrocketing, so how are artists or anyone else low on funds supposed to survive in these environments?

This artist-grant money will not fix the core issue as it's like trying to stop a flood with a paper tissue.

[onion2k]

Why does the city/country not invest that money in affordable housing first?

You're representing this as a dichotomy. It's not though. Governments have enough resources to do more than one thing at a time.

[ChuckNorris89]

>Governments have enough resources to do more than one thing at a time.

They have resources, but reality has show they lack the will to properly use them as those in charge are more concerned about winning these popularity contests called "elections" rather than taking radical actions to do any meaningful change. So it's a lot less riskier for their careers to sit back and kick the can down the road while starting projects that sound good on paper and wins them sympathy ("new law wants to help struggling artists") but accomplish nothing meaningful in the end (CoL, inflation and wealth inequality will keep rising, wages will stagnate). Rinse and repeat.