For the past few months I've been in a somewhat unusual housing situation. My wife is a medical resident in NYC, and the hospital system she works for is quite large and owns a lot of NYC property. They offer their employees subsidized housing at greatly reduced rates (meaning, an 1100 sq. ft. Manhattan apartment for $2300 a month). It has a "company town" feel, but it has been great for us, and the incentives seem like they're aligned in this case - employers have an incentive against being extractive because it reduces their employees' effective compensation. The residency program is 7 years which means we're stuck here anyway, and we don't have to worry too much about about her being fired or wanting to find a new job. In a competitive labor market like tech / finance / medicine it seems like employer-subsidized housing isn't a terrible idea, and is an alternative to just relocating corporate offices to a lower CoL area.