Florida Democratic Rep.-elect Maxwell Frost, the first member of Generation Z elected to Congress, said on Thursday that he was denied an apartment rental in Washington, DC, because of his “really bad” credit.
“Just applied to an apartment in DC where I told the guy that my credit was really bad. He said I’d be fine. Got denied, lost the apartment, and the application fee,” Frost wrote in a tweet.
“This ain’t meant for people who don’t already have money,” the incoming 25-year-old congressman added.
Frost, who worked as a community organizer before his congressional run in Florida’s 10th District, said that he racked up the debt during the campaign and that he didn’t earn enough money working as an Uber driver to pay for the high cost of living in the nation’s capital.
“For those asking, I have bad credit cause I ran up a lot of debt running for Congress for a year and a half. Didn’t make enough money from Uber itself to pay for my living,” Frost tweeted.
Frost shocked the political establishment by defeating more seasoned Democratic opponents in a crowded primary field before beating Republican Calvin Wimbish in the Nov. 8 midterm election.
“It isn’t magic that we won our very difficult race. For that primary, I quit my full time job cause I knew that to win at 25 yrs old, I’d need to be a full time candidate. 7 days a week, 10-12 hours a day. It’s not sustainable or right but it’s what we had to do,” Frost said.
“As a candidate, you can’t give yourself a stipend or anything till the very end of your campaign. So most of the run, you have no $ coming in unless you work a second job,” he added.
The average rent for an average-sized apartment in the District is $2,335, according to RentCafe.com. DC ranks No. 22 in the nation, among the country’s 100 largest cities, in terms of median cost of rent, according to ApartmentList.com.
Lawmakers in DC have often resorted to unusual living arrangements because of high housing costs, with some members of Congress even living out of their offices, sleeping on inflatable mattresses or sofas.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) famously roomed with colleagues Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and former Rep. George Miller (D-CA) until 2014.
