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As a graduate social work student I collaborate with clients to solve the most debilitating social problems and see the impact of unfair housing practices every day. In Lexington, KY where the minimum wage is $7.25 (because attempts to increase in the city were thwarted by business owners), low-income individuals and families are scraping the bottom of the proverbial barrel to have safe roofs over their heads. This summer I have worked with people of all ages sleeping on the street, or in rented condemnable homes, and families with single mothers who cannot make ends meet to care for her children’s daily needs AND pay the egregious cost of rent in this city. We are not exceptional in this issue. Tenants in the United States need to be heard now more than ever. The people need controlled rent, more income-based rental opportunities, a formal voice in our government system, protection from eviction based solely on inability to pay, and accountability from their landlords. Landlords should be held responsible for wrong rental practices and barred from continuing to purchase more properties or continue to rent units that should not be inhabited by humans, especially those vulnerable enough to depend on predatory rental practices. I am a homeowner in a modest neighborhood where I will watch my family outgrow the space we have simply because we cannot afford to purchase another home. That is not a complaint about my living situation, but evidence of the impossible momentum required for middle class Americans to have purchasing power that has been dangled in front of us like a carrot for decades. Many tenants do not want to be beholden to landlords but have no choice. The least we can do in this exploitative system is provide tenant protections so that their minimum needs are met with safe, affordable, dependable rental practices.