A real dilemma comes when tenants cannot pay the rent. Unemployment, sickness or other reasons why a tenant family has lost its income merit sympathy. But since poor landlords depend upon the rent to keep themselves out of poverty, it is not they that should bear the cost of non-payment. Rich governments can solve the problem by subsidising the poorest tenants. However, this is unrealistic in most poor countries and governments must accept eviction as an unpleasant consequence of poverty. It should also be recalled that owners are also sometimes thrown out of their homes because of their inability to pay