"Scrape by" is not the criteria. Housing payment record is (assuming incomer and chosen rental rate are about the same)Yeah because as an apartment complex owner I want my investment to be known as projects.....and no, people making below three times are not the best renters at all. If you want guaranteed payments, you do Section 8. If you are interested in not having our investment lose value, you do not rent to people who can barely scrap by.
If you are interested in not having your investment lose value, you do not rent to people who have high chance of eviction. That is young people with insecure JOBS (here today gone tomorrow), more so than retired people with secure Social Security and VA pension incomes.
They also don't like having a lot of kids around, another plus if one owns rental property.
I built a park area for the locals on my block, I live in an older plotted town, very large 'blocks' with a lot of land running through the middle behind the house plots. They want access they have to keep it clean and not tear all the stuff up. Works out fine. I have a large truck garden, about 5 acres, and some pasture, some of the neighbors rent plots for gardens, one has a horse grazing there, and the kids have about 4,5 acres to themselves.