A lot of the problems in large towns and cities come about because we don't build the right kind of rental housing. Instead of building comfortable and future-proofed family flats with good disability access, good storage, good bike and car parking, useful play and laundry areas and good sound insulation, we more or less give the best land to a very limited group of developers (about four or so large companies in the UK), who proceed to throw up flimsy and fairly miserable blocks of flats aimed at notional 'young professionals'.
Characteristics of these flats include second bedrooms squeezed into the space a cupboard ought to take, sloppy build quality, inadequate storage and noise insulation problems. Instead of taking pride in the job, developers pimp up one or two of them as show homes, and then play down the square footage of actual usable living space, as well as the overall building standards, so people are blinded by marketing and don't ask proper questions about the construction of the properties and what they are getting for their money.
These flats are designed not as homes or as part of communities, but instead to be flogged to private investors at massively increased prices. These investors then rent them out piecemeal and tenants have to try to fit their lives into what they have, whilst paying handsomely for the privilege. They do not have much of a voice at all. Residents' Associations are few and far between, tenancies are transient, and landlords conspicuously absent and fragmented as a body. Lettings agencies vary in their approach to professional standards and can be uninterested at best and unethical at worst.
A better way would be for local housing associations to be given the land, for building regulations to be improved so flats are light, bright, peaceful and more spacious, with good amenities, and a sense of community. You should be able to live there as a young single person, bring your family up in a block, or live there as a retired couple without difficulties. There should be ample space to hang your washing out, park your buggy/bike/disability vehicle. Your block should be run professionally, preferably by a not for profit organisation, and you should have a say in how your flat's service charge and sinking fund is spent. That way we would have a much more humane and useful rental sector where homes were central to policies, rather than 'properties'.