This housing shortage has resulted in the construction of subsidized housing, which in turn has created more social problems than it has solved. I will also try to show why these programs failed in North America. Capitalism has been the dominant form of political, social and economic organization in the Western world for the last 150 years. Capitalism has improved the lives of millions of people everywhere from the USA to Singapore, from Taipei to Berlin. It has allowed people to raise their standard of living, and has enabled governments to create welfare states which attempt to provide a basic minimum for all.
Capitalism does come with certain costs, however.
The main cost is poverty. Capitalism maintains the wealth of most people at the expense of a relatively small but permanent underemployed population. A permanently underemployed population ensures that the market never experiences a shortage of cheap labour, and this allows the production of goods to remain competitive. If there were more jobs than labourers in society, labourers would be able to control the labour market. They would choose what jobs and what pay they wanted, and naturally they would choose to be well payed.