A strong argument could be made that the lack of affordable housing is the biggest economic problem facing the Sacramento region. It's the first contributing factor to the explosion in homelessness in the past two years, and has reduced the standard of living for tens of thousands of working Sacramentans, even as job and wage growth have boomed.
It's a problem that seems to defy solutions. Contributing factors include environmental and labor laws that make it harder to build affordable housing,…