And we’re back to my original comment: there must be a better way to accomplish this.
The few good ideas seem to essentially be to treat housing as infrastructure. Of course building infrastructure is a problem in itself for many countries.
Those who need it? We're not getting that from rent control, either, because many people suffer from high rent who don't have a rent-controlled apartment. Some of this may be due to those who don't need it getting it, but I suspect the numbers of such cases aren't enough to account for all those who need it who don't get it.
> someone occupying an apartment at a low margin is only really a problem if we can't produce more apartments, or more opportunities, at the same price.
That's exactly the problem with rent control. Let's say that there are a shortage of apartments for $100/month in NYC. Who is going to try to build more apartments in NYC for $100/month? Anybody who tries is going to lose their shirt. We can't produce them at that price. Rent control doesn't make that problem go away.
$100 per month isn't realistic, $500 might be. While construction costs do rise, you are mostly paying for the exclusivity.
"High-rise apartment buildings cost an average $302 per square foot."
https://therealdeal.com/2018/05/15/surprise-nyc-remains-most...
You might be able to do it for $800/month, though.