I encourage you to step out of the Internet bubble of hopelessness and research what it takes to achieve homeownership. Almost anyone can get a mortgage with fair rates and zero money in their pocket. There’s much more oversight than you’d expect to ensure that poor people aren’t taken advantage of in the ways you described. There’s even great programs to reduce interest rates and eliminate down-payments for low-credit low-earners if they take a free class that teaches them about homeownership. You might benefit from that.

I think the biggest problem is a lack of education on the subject. People see that they don’t qualify for the types of loans their parents got and thus think that homeownership is impossible for them. Thus they throw money away on ever-increasing rent instead of locking into the same monthly payment with a mortgage.