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Canada actually has a national crown corporation that exists solely to improve housing affordability https://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca . They funded or built significant housing supply for decades up until the 1990s when their funding plummeted. Wikipedia has an excellent history write up of CMHC. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_Mortgage_and_Housing_Co...

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Yep. I didn't read the Wikipedia article, but, AFAIK, there used to be more non-market or co-op housing in Canada where the cost of rent, etc. was tied to the actual costs instead of what the market will bear. That acted as a check on runaway greed since it gave people a good comparable (at least for rent) that was based on fair value rather than maximizing profit.

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