Why does no one expose the rental industry's stranglehold on Americans?

[grasswire]

I haven't had to apply for a rental for a number of years.

So when I am going through the process now, I see a horrible, horrible process that should be illegal. It's humiliating, it seems to be a sort of bait and switch, and the effect on people of modest means is a sort of nasty roulette.

So you find a townhouse you like and want. You are handed pages of "screening criteria" and application forms. If you want to apply, you pay $45 or so for a fee. They process your information and THEN, they adjust your deposit based on what they find. There is no fixed deposit until they decide what your info means as a risk to them. So, for example, your deposit might be anywhere from $400-$1400 for the townhouse I saw today.

But you won't know if you are going to have to pay $1400 until you have shelled out the screening fee.

That's just the tip of the iceberg.

Why is this process so intrusive, and humiliating to people? Is the risk to a property owner that great, truly? Or have "property management firms" just found a way to monetize transactions?