One of the ways that people on the bottom of the economic ladder are held down there is unstable housing. When they are forced out of the place they are renting, they often illegally lose their security deposits (tough to find the time to fight for a few hundred bucks when you're working two jobs at low wages). Then they lose all those application fees as they frantically search for new housing. Let's not forget utility deposits and time off work to deal with finding a place to live and moving, plus the moving expense and new commuting costs.

I've owned rental property. I've had tenants absolutely trash some of the houses I have rented. While unfortunate, it's a predictable cost of doing business. I've often taken less than market rates just to keep good tenants in place in order to avoid the bad tenant lottery. I know other landlords who do the same. Unfortunately, some property managers see application fees and deposits as ATM's. Their greed brought this on.