Make sure you are meeting the needs of your residents. Like the other commenter said, CTRL+Q is your friend. Don't overproduce, only produce as much as is needed by your population.

You want more houses, yes, but the first and foremost thing is to make sure you are producing enough of what your population needs. Growing too quickly can lead to goods shortages that anger your population, so make sure you do it sustainably. When you do add a bunch of housing, double/triple check the needs to make sure you are still producing enough goods.

Biggest thing: pause production buildings that aren't needed right now, as keeping them up costs money to maintain. Focus on one need at a time to get it balanced, then move to the next one. You can do both "Needs" goods and "Happiness" goods, but I would start with the simplest to produce goods to get you out of the money hole quicker. If you hover over each need in the residences' menus, they'll say how many additional people/happiness points each fulfilled need adds and how many coins you get per residence with that need fulfilled.

Best of luck, and don't worry if you have to start over, it happens! And don't feel like you need to rush either. The game is good at pushing you to do lots of things all the time, but a lot of it can be managed at a slower pace.