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A Times-Dispatch series examines "problems low-income people have in renting decent housing" in Richmond, Virginia, as well as "problems building and safety officials have with forcing landlords to comply with regulations." The investigation reveals that "some ...landlords milk their tenants, who are forced to live in vermin-infested apartments or padlocked room where heat is a dream." The stories detail the contradictions of government inspectors "with one approving an apartment only to have another fail." The investigation also shows how tenants are trapped to suffer in silence: "If they complain, inspectors could evict them, and if evicted, they have no place else to go."