I had a stuck housing on one bike I purchased - it hadn't been ridden in years. [Had a stuck stem as well.] Pulling on the housing just resulted in it coming apart, and I was left with housing inside the tube with no exposed ends to grab.
1. Soaked in the 50/50 mix for a couple of days. After extraction I'm really not sure this helped much, as the outside of the housing appeared relatively dry, but it didn't hurt.
2. Used a spoke to stick down inside the tube and thread into the housing. I don't recall if it was a 14g or a 15g spoke, but one size worked much better than the other.
3. Grabbed onto the spoke elbow with a large pair of vice grips and pulled. I pulled out short sections twice (desinegrated) before the rest of the housing pulled free.
IIRC I thought about using a cable w/end and trying to pull it through - but I was worried that I was just going to compress the housing further inside the tube - so I don't think I gave this a try.