What I start thinking after reading that is - how could an individual investor do this in a way that felt/seemed less sleazy and might actually help people? Most people's go-to seems to be to try to keep the rent low, but that doesn't really accomplish anything but keeping the same people in the same slightly less grinding poverty for the rest of their lives. What if you raised the rent like they say, but put some of the money towards some kind of education or life-counseling class on-premises instead of just pocketing it all?
I thought of that when I remembered a recent discussion on debt collectors where one collector decided that, instead of just hounding and threatening the debtors with dire consequences, they would actually help them make more money to pay the debits by giving them career counseling, resume help, interview practice, help finding jobs they could do, etc. You get your money and improve their lives at the same time.
Why not try the same thing here? I bet a lot of the people there could be making more money if there was somebody there to teach them things, train them in new skills, help them out with logistics, transportation, contacts, etc. Why not dream up new ways to help them instead of new ways to fuck them over?