Even if producing a record supply of housing units could guarantee solving the affordability issue, actually building that much housing with viable density comes with a steep price tag. Even advocates of mass housing admit as much. If we don’t go after the land value itself, we are essentially trying to deflate a balloon by blowing on it.
My house is not a means of production. I don’t use my home to produce value, and my landlord is not my employer.
The closest thing a landlord can be is a provider of housing as a service. However, as the article points out, the biggest factor in housing costs is the value of the land it sits on. In this way, landlords aren’t providing housing, they’re charging for access to valuable land. Land they didn’t produce nor make valuable. The community around that land has made it valuable.
As the community grows, the land becomes more valuable, and the landlord gets to charge more. This never ends. Nothing is being produced besides a better community, and the community is being charged for it.