Other people are playing the "enrich themselves at the expensive of the collective" game, so you should too. The move in this situation is to seek out rent control. That will cap rent increases for you at like 5% a year in most places. If you are able to swing a few promotions at work while staying in this same place, you might come out well ahead of any potential rent increases and manage to start actually saving and investing money. This is the route to property ownership a lot of people I know in southern california are taking.