It just gets perceived as much because we are used to be given scraps. But housing costs are through the roof nowadays so rent alone will eat up a lot of it.

At least with $15/h it will only cost half your wage to stay alive. And I mean survive. Just water, food and a somewhere warm and dry to sleep.

The reason many landlords ask for first and last month’s rent and a security deposit is because of classism and racism, as it will exclude many “undesirable” people from being able to rent the property.

Fronting that amount used to be doable when rent was half the price it is today, but since rent keeps increasing every single year and minimum wage has remained at $7/hour for decades, it’s no longer possible without multiple jobs.