Subsidies and regulation doesn't work.<p>If you subside families, the subsidies will simply go into rents and then those who don't get subsidies still have to pay that same rate. Basically, the lowest rent turns into exactly the same level where you're entitled for full subsidies. In effect, you'll just give tax payer's money to landlords.<p>If you regulate rents (or subsidize apartments), the apartments aren't taken cared of. The landlord is squeezed between the regulated rent and rising costs, and this doesn't lend to a very good and successful renting business.<p>If the city builds public housing (council housing) and rents directly to poorer families, you'll get two things. First, a lot of poor people get flocked into the same building or neighbourhood, including problematic people (most poor people aren't problematic but most problematic people are poor), and this lowers the reputation of the area. Second, those who were poor but are now in the middle class still want to hold on to their cheap apartment because they would face a direct hit in their standard of living if they moved out to an apartment rented at market price. This is a huge disincentive to move because of a better job or to move because more (or less) space is needed.<p>So far I've only seen one scheme that does work: public housing, initially at at-cost prices (no profit for the city) but with rents discounted based on the tenant's annual income. The subsidy isn't money that could go to anyone else but the tenant as the city "pays" for the subsidy by simply getting less money from that tenant. If the tenant begins to earn more money, the rent will go up in proportion to the extra income so that there's no big jump or disincentive to not get a better job. The rent always goes up less than the income, so that it's always worth taking a better job, until at some point the rent will equal market prices. This allows people to stay (if they like the place) or move away (because they already pay the market rent). The city could also sell individual apartments to long-term tenants if they wish to buy: this is to gradually balance the demography of the area and keep the houses from being populated by poor people forever.