[exelius]

Yeah, such a solution is difficult -- and costly -- to implement. For the reasons you mentioned, government tends to choose subsidization options where money isn't explicitly exchanged: i.e. rather than paying the landlord the difference between controlled and uncontrolled, they just tell him certain units are controlled and he has to deal with it.

A solution such as the one you described also makes it difficult to distinguish between who to subsidize and who not to subsidize. How do you make sure you're not giving big payments to people who don't really need the money and just want the house? What's the difference between a family making $90k/yr and wanting to live in a $5k/mo apartment and a family making $500k/yr and wanting to live in a $25k/mo apartment off central park west? Neither can afford the rent in the area, but where do you draw the line?

[evanpw]

The subsidy shouldn't depend on the apartment, but it should depend on the renters. So you can explicitly set an income limit to exclude the $500k/yr family, but even if you don't, they don't get a bigger subsidy just because they want a more expensive apartment.

[mseebach]

Housing shortages aren't substantially caused by people making >$500k, people making a lot of money just have an easier time dealing with a shortage.

All other things being equal, giving everybody a subsidy just bumps the rent by the same amount.

The biggest problem with the subsidy idea is deciding who gets it - and it can't be anywhere near everybody.