Raising the minimum wage to $15 will save the US billions of dollars per year
businessinsider.com
businessinsider.com
Now the same apartments about 1300, and this has only happen in the last decade.
Seriously, make housing easier to build. Don't allow anyone who might be a bit annoyed by construction to file half a dozen complaints and hold up projects by years.
As an extreme measure, it wouldn't be a bad idea to have social programs which help people with relocation expenses. Let's say you had a struggling family in Los Angeles, a good social program would give this family $5,000 to relocate to Nashville, and to rent an apartment in a city where a working class family can survive. But this underscores a very nasty truth, there are cities which are hostile towards working class people. I'm not sure of the society we're ready to embrace this truth