The fact that housing prices are high isn't a sign of greed: it's a sign of a constrained supply. Developers build housing, the price is set by what people are willing to pay.
Also, recent California law was changed so that the maximum allowable annual rent increase is ~10% (still rough if you are hit with that, but better than 30%).
Except, they're not raising rent for no reason. They're raising rent because housing is becoming a scare commodity, and there's way more people looking for housing than there are housing units available. If they look elsewhere the prices would also be high.
The "greedy" developers are the ones that are capable of bringing us out of this situation by profiting off this shortage by building more housing. Hostility to developers is a big reason why San Francisco and similar ares have such high housing costs.
That's not entirely true. Yes, you need a place to live. But it doesn't have to be right there, it can be elsewhere.
I wanted to live in Manhattan but the rents were insane. Eventually I gave up on the idea and moved elsewhere.