There is no housing crisis

A house is the foundation and frame, facade, windows, plumbing, electricity, heating, ventilation & air conditioning. They are all tangible components that can be altered and set with physical tools, whether it is a saw, nail gun, or back hoe.

A home is the living that happens underneath the roof and between the walls. They occupy the same footprint, but they are two distinct ideas. With care and love, a lean-to, tent, or cave can be a home. 

Indeed, in Cleveland, the concrete walls and joists overhead were a dungeon rather home for several captives.

I point this out, because when activists talk about a housing crisis, they are wrong. Houses are going for $1 in Detroit. East Cleveland probably has the similar opportunities. Ditto for Schenectady, NY prior to the wave of Guyanese immigrants, which was left behind by GE. The rural areas likely have affordable land & buildings.

If you asked me if I would want to live in Detroit or these other places, my answer would be no. If I wanted to live in these places, I would already be there. However, my objection to these other locales has nothing to do with the concrete, studs, or piping that make up the houses. The quality of life issue has to do with crime, lack of jobs, and lack of services. The are problems with people. These are problems with the community. These are problems of people setting bad policies.

The housing crisis is misnamed, which misdirects resources and ire. This is not a problem that will be solved by general contractors or mortgage brokers. Bringing in mix trucks and shipping 2x6's will NEVER make Detroit more habitable. Switching from on-site building to prefab will do little if either building get shot up. Few people have the capacity to fix-up a foreclosure if employers flee from high taxes and restrictions.

Moving people to ready homes with Section 8 worked for the households with stable works at the head of household. Once the program expanded, crime followed to the new neighborhoods.

This is a human problem & the broken humans have be fixed or set straight enough to make homes of the remaining houses. As for who broke the homes and the humans, I refer you to the activists themselves. You can't ask them, just observe the communities they work in and the wake of destruction that followed since the 60s. Calling it a housing crisis is not an accident, it is a way to guilt and pressure that banks that are holding the money, and just follow the money.