With her landlord charging $100 each month for the lateness, it is hard for the family to get ahead.

The Secretary said rents had been rising for several years as landlords charged what they thought the market would bear in times of prosperity.

Rent control laws establish maximum rents that landlords may charge.

And it does that by limiting the rent a landlord can charge.

Without the haircut, he said, the landlord would have charged him $300.

A landlord might charge the city as much as $1,800 a month for a single cramped room.

The landlord may charge one-sixtieth of the cost a month over five years.

A landlord will charge whatever the market can bear.

Private landlords charge through the roof for sub standard housing.

"The landlords were charging a very expensive rent," he says.