I think a confounding issue is there’s a difference between a landlord that just owns a building and rents it out, and like a property management company that maintains the building.

If I own a building but also tend to the yard, keep the building painted, sweep the lobby, deal with utilities, etc etc, that’s labor and contributing something. It doesn’t give a carte blanc for renting out rooms at sky high prices, but it is in my mind better than someone who does nothing, but happens to legally own the place so they get the money.

Public housing is probably still the way to go, though.