Apache2 403 Forbidden Error – Troubleshooting Guide

I've been messing with this for days 🙁

Why do I get a 403 Forbidden error at example.com/contact?

Is this a file/folder permissions, Apache user, virtualhosts or Python issue?

I'm trying to run a Django app at /contact but the first issue is the 403 error.

• I'm running Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS
• Apache 2.4.41 installed and is running
• Python 3.8 and Django installed
• libapache2-mod-wsgi-py3 installed and enabled
• apachectl configtest Syntax OK
• All files chowned to www-data:www-data
• Directories chmod +x
• example.com/index.html works

/var/log/apache2/access.log is empty

/var/log/apache2/error.log contains:

[mpm_prefork:notice] [pid 69090] AH00163: Apache/2.4.41 (Ubuntu)
OpenSSL/1.1.1k mod_wsgi/4.6.8 Python/3.8 configured — resuming normal
operations

[core:notice] [pid 69090] AH00094: Command line: '/usr/sbin/apache2'

The .htaccess file at root has

 RewriteEngine on
 ServerSignature Off
 Options All -Indexes

This is my public_html file structure:

/etc/apache2/sites-available/default-ssl.conf:

  <IfModule mod_ssl.c>
    <VirtualHost _default_:443>
        ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
    
        DocumentRoot /var/www/html
    
        ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
        CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
    
        SSLEngine on
    
        SSLCertificateFile  /etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem
        SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key
    
        <FilesMatch "\.(cgi|shtml|phtml|php)$">
                    SSLOptions +StdEnvVars
        </FilesMatch>
        <Directory /usr/lib/cgi-bin>
                    SSLOptions +StdEnvVars
        </Directory>
    
    
    Alias /static /var/www/html/example.com/public_html/contact/static
    Alias /media /var/www/html/example.com/public_html/contact/media

    <Directory /var/www/html/example.com/public_html/contact/static>
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

    <Directory /var/www/html/example.com/public_html/contact/media>
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

    WSGIScriptAlias /contact/contact /var/www/html/example.com/public_html/contact/contact/wsgi.py

    WSGIDaemonProcess contact python-home=/var/www/html/example.com/public_html/contact/contact

    WSGIProcessGroup contact

    WSGISocketPrefix run/wsgi

    <Directory /var/www/html/example.com/public_html/contact/contact>
        <Files wsgi.py>
            Require all granted
            AllowOverride None
            Allow from all
        </Files>
    </Directory>

        </VirtualHost>
</IfModule>