If food became twice as cheap, would you consume twice as many calories?
Induced demand is easily applied to traffic because people shift consumption from X to X+Y% miles when trip times are reduced. Housing demand is finite. There is no +Y% additional housing that is being consumed when it is free, because it's only available to people who have none. Google's software engineers aren't going to be using free housing if it becomes available.
It's only available to people who have none across the entire country, plus it lowers the cost at the margin to becoming homeless (albeit only slightly).
> Housing demand is finite.
So is traffic demand. Demand being finite does not mean that induced demand no longer exists as phenomenon.
Induced demand is just another way of saying the supply is too low - and increasing the supply doesn't "increase the demand" it just reveals demand that was already there (and being unfulfilled).
Induced demand is easily applied to traffic because people shift consumption from X to X+Y% miles when trip times are reduced. Housing demand is finite. There is no +Y% additional housing that is being consumed when it is free, because it's only available to people who have none. Google's software engineers aren't going to be using free housing if it becomes available.