The only way to make it happen is to incentivize it monetarily. That means the government’s budget would have to be heavily controlled by how many residents there are. But just residency is too narrow of a lens to make any conclusions from, in my opinion.
Not necessarily. Making it easier to build housing or creating temporary tax abatements for renovations is a tired and true strategy that doesn't really cost a city anything. Attracting new residents to rehab and move into formerly run down housing will actually increase tax receipts in the medium term.
