Canada

All excellent points, and you're right, I really meant "simple", not "easy".

My comment was really intended to highlight the narrowing of the solution space regarding housing. When houses became products and investments, we collectively decided the government had no place in building them aside from indirect nudges: zoning, various forms of incentives, etc.

Maybe it's time we accept that the free market has simply failed and we need to look beyond neoliberal orthodoxy for solutions.

That's not an easy shift! Not at all. But IMO it's a necessary one.

As an aside, it's not like this is new. "It's a Wonderful Life" highlighted this exact problem. Their only mistake is they assumed a benevolent capitalist (George) would come along and fix the problem. But that ain't how the real world works.