I agree with you that subsidised housing should be owned/managed/maintained by the government, since it is supposed to be composed "of the people, by the people".

I would worry that many slumlords would take issue with the government undercutting their business model, and conservative voters would rally around the idea that they "don't want their tax dollars" paying for someone else's housing. So getting the legislation in place to get this going may be difficult.

In addition, I suspect some conservative "leader" would come along and sell off the entire subsidized housing/management government system to the private sector, framing the whole thing as a "drain" on "the system" (meanwhile, public funds would likely benefit from the program, rather than the other way around). That way they can sell off property en masse to their real estate mogul buddies so they can hike rent and turn a profit (which would likely end up coming from public funds so that the housing can remain subsidized), achieving the opposite of what they said the change would accomplish....

I've been watching this circus long enough to be cynical about what the outcomes will be, both short term and long term.

And this is why we can't have nice things.