In my experience there are some landlords who have people’s best interests at heart. I do believe landlords are parasitic, but not everyone does, and out of those people there are some who become landlords because they think it will actually help people. And to be fair, when I was in undergrad, I rented a house with some guys and our landlord charged us $290/month/person and paid for all the utilities. I couldn’t have saved any money from my part time job in any other situation. The house was nice, we each had our own room, and we shared 3 bathrooms. He was quick about repairs too. No lease agreement either, and when anybody moved out he didn’t raise the rent. I stayed there for 3 years, others for longer.