The mortgage crisis that devastated the economy has received endless attention, but it's not just homeowners who have suffered badly in this economy.
As of 2012, renters made up 35 percent of American households. Their numbers are growing, reversing a decades-long uptick in home ownership.
And in the last 50 years, the percentage of income they're spending on the rent has increased dramatically. A quarter of renters are spending more than half their income on rent.
Ymelda Alvarez, her husband and their two daughters live in a tiny one-bedroom apartment just east of downtown Los Angeles in a neighborhood called Boyle Heights. It's not a fancy or trendy area; it's a poor part of town with a lot of crime and most of the schools are struggling.
Their apartment consists of a front living room converted to a bedroom, a small kitchen and a little room in the back with bunk beds for the kids. Other amenities include sagging ceilings, leaky faucets, doors that don't lock and pests like cockroaches and rats.
For this they pay $1,000 a month.
But it's currently their only option. Antonio, her husband, can't land a full-time job and only makes about $1,200 month from stringing together part-time work at a school nearby.
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8 Reasons Why The Rent Is Too Damn High