When people hear the term “landlord,” they often picture a faceless corporation or a Wall Street-backed firm snapping up homes and squeezing tenants. It’s a powerful image, and in many policy debates, a convenient one. But it mistakes who the country’s real landlords truly are. The vast majority of rental housing in this country isn’t owned by large institutions. It’s owned by individuals, our friends, family and neighbors. These landlords, commonly referred to as “mom-and-pop” landlords, who hold anywhere between one and five properties, own 89.6 percent of single-family rentals. A mom-and-pop landlord might be a retired couple renting out the home in which they once lived. It might be a working family that held onto their starter home instead of selling it. Some are “accidental landlords,” others made intentional investments to supplement a 401(k) or to replace one altogether. Collectively, these small-scale owners provide roughly 40 percent of all U.S.…