Your last paragraph was pretty much where I was a couple years ago. I don't remember who helped clarify this for me, but housing maintenance is very much a real job and deserves the same respect and compensation as any real job, but it can very easily be disjoint from being a landlord. Making money from owning the housing other people live in is distinct from maintaining that housing, and just because several people do both things doesn't mean that we should treat them as the same job.

That sounds exactly like a housing co-op, you're usually part landlord in that situation as a member of that community (much like electric co-ops and worker owned business co-ops). They are by far the best type of situation for people who don't want to take on the full responsibility of "owning" the house themselves as it's spread out between all the members and the "agreement" usually is a 100 year contract. If it's through the government strictly with subsidies etc I guess it's more of socialized housing, either way those two don't fit the description of a profit driven landlord that OP was suggesting above.

The only other form of housing that I think is legitimate in our dystopian future is Rent to Own where all rent is collected into an account which will purchase the house at a contracted set price (maybe add negotiations for remodeling etc but with outside mediators so no one is getting bamboozled). If you don't want to help someone get into permanent housing, then don't buy additional properties.