I’m a little conflicted for this manga. On one hand, the contract to live with her reminds me of old school indentured service; while on the other hand, the landlady steps in as her safety net to keep her off the streets as a homeless person. The landlady picked her because she’s, at the core, a good person who has hit hard times filled with guilt and shame. If the person was morally corrupt and devious in some way, she would have been evicted... the landlady picked an angel.
There’s a few plot holes: why not fall back on family and friends? The guilt and shame part might work if she had done bad things in the past, but she seems pure as a person.
As for the landlady, there’s room to explore how she ended up as landlady right after high school.
It’s funny how the character name “landlady” stuck for so long in the manga, must be the culture thing of sticking with formality even if they share the same apartment for so long.