How about tax control? 70% of every dollar we earn go to pay taxes and fees.  Taxes and fees should be control. Why not place a cap on food & utilities, are they not as important as shelter? Rent control will not work. It will make the problem worst. You talk about slum lords, it's because of rent control, shortage of rental housing, it is because of  rent control. Would you want to invest in a building where cost is going up on average 5% and revenue (rent control) can only be increase by 2%. If you have vacancy rent will be control by landlords reducing rent to fill the vacancy however if you have zero vacancy, rent will be anything the market is willing to pay. Rent control prevents inventors to build new rental buildings or in other words, create vacancy. We have a problem that was created by rent control (good intentions). If you keeping doing the same thing over and over again and is expecting a different result, you would be considered insane.