It’s not a free market construction issue at all, it’s a regulatory zoning and permitting issue.

Read the article and the peer comments here; Austin’s boom came about from reducing regulatory constraints.

Nationally remove the artificial restrictions and the supply side will fix itself.

Public housing projects were and sort of still are a thing. Glass Amendment limits the number of units that can be produced but most areas are well below those limits and the larger issue is that there's no budget or political willpower for social housing projects right now.

Maybe? Obviously boom bust cycles that come from a free market are not very efficient.

We already have that. They're called "housing projects".