the bulk of public spending on housing in the US goes to homeowners. after Katrina public assistance went to homeowners and not to renters. this was done very explicitly by policy makers as a civilizing mission, the thinking being that property ownership makes good citizens https://twitter.com/PSLBakedAlaska/status/1283262227827421184

and that directing funds to homeowners incentivizes renters to ownership. Schwartz's Housing Policy in the United States is a great survey of all of this

source on the Katrina bit, from Andy Horowitz's new book Katrina: A History. it's worse than i remembered, it was the largest housing recovery program in US history (I think that includes any post-2008 policy)

really recommend the Katrina book, it's such a good overview of how the American state actually operates and for whom . this thread has some passages from it https://twitter.com/texastential_sm/status/1281673429482168320?s=20