This is a problem because you often can't just find a room to rent. Instead you have to lease an apartment with other people and be legally responsible for thei

This is a problem because you often can't just find a room to rent. Instead you have to lease an apartment with other people and be legally responsible for their behavior. It allows landlords to shift risk on to tennants because leases make everyone responsible for everyone else. If someone loses their job or abondons the property (an almost inevetalbe eventuallity in a group of young people) whoever's left is stuck holding the bag to clean up the mess and pay more rent than they can afford, or get saddled with an eviction or abandonment on their credit so they can't rent again. It's like playing contract chicken. Also, many leases include maximum occupancy and/or charge more for more tennants, such that tennants are not legally allowed to reduce consumption to within their means. In my hometown (in Alaska) the lowest rent was more then full time minimum wage. Ther was no road out of town, so you couldn't even leave if you couldn't afford a plane ticket to Seattle. Lots of people I know were sleeping on couches and in closets trying not to get caught by the leasor's landlord. I'm guessing E.B. White was doing this before the Equifax era.