Is this a scam or a trap? Do landlords really collude with student loan institutions, or are landlords simply leveraging 1. the necessity of their resource and 2. the lack of rent control?  There&#x27;s no basic regulation on what fraction of income landlords can charge tenants, and landlords get critical financial information on tenants.  If loans are so easy to obtain, there&#x27;s zero incentive for landlords not to gouge tenants (by progressively raising rents).<p>I don&#x27;t see how any explicit fraud is happening.  I also don&#x27;t see how things will ever get better without tighter regulation of rents.  Well I guess we could turn down loans and kill the demand ...