Beautiful and tragic. Thank you for this piece! I was a landlord in Northern Virginia for several years (I do bully breed rescue and no apartments would admit me lol) and the rents are out of control! 15 years ago, I rented a $400/month room in a punk dump (although Minor Threat used to play in the basement!) My roommates were a freegan steampunk, a part time barista, and an aspiring heavy metal singer. Now that room goes for $1300/month. I stopped being a landlord when the people applying for $500/month rooms weren't grad students- they were whole families. One woman cried in my kitchen.