Paul McMorrow’S “Housing as a math problem” addresses only one part of the equation in discussing the Patrick administration’s call for new housing to be built.

At the time of a widely reported 2006 finding by the state auditor, 81,000 low-income Massachusetts residents were on waiting lists to enter public housing, and tens of thousands more were on waiting lists for other affordable housing options in a state with one of the highest costs of living in the country. Only a small fraction of this population — among whom children, people with disabilities, and people of color are vastly overrepresented — would benefit from the new building plan.