  Policymakers decide on alternative policies facing restricted budgets and
uncertain, ever-changing future. Designing housing policies is further
difficult giving the heterogeneous characteristics of properties themselves and
the intricacy of housing markets and the spatial context of cities. We propose
PolicySpace2 (PS2) as an adapted and extended version of the open source
PolicySpace agent-based model. PS2 is a computer simulation that relies on
empirically detailed spatial data to model real estate, along with labor,
credit and goods and services markets. Interaction among workers, firms, a
bank, households and municipalities follow the literature benchmarks to
integrate economic, spatial and transport literature. PS2 is applied to a
comparison among three competing municipal housing policies aimed at
alleviating poverty: (a) property acquisition and distribution, (b) rental
vouchers and (c) monetary aid. Within the model context, the monetary aid, that
is, a smaller amounts of help for a larger number of households, makes the
economy perform better in terms of production, consumption, reduction of
inequality and maintenance of financial duties. PS2 as such is also a framework
that may be further adapted to a number of related research questions.
