Gen Z congressman Maxwell Frost was denied an apartment in DC for bad credit

“I was excited because I had finally found a place that made sense to me, that was in my price range,” Frost said in an interview. Before applying, he said he revealed “my credit was bad. I told the guy my whole situation and he said ‘Apply, I’ll be fine’. ”

Frost said he paid a $50 application fee and submitted his information. After the rejection — and the loss of the fee — Frost said he was “told there was really nothing I could do. It’s just unfortunate. They said you can call and dispute the result, but I said I don’t know what I would dispute. I have bad credit – I admit it.

Frost, 25, drove an Uber to pay his bills while campaigning full-time in his Central Florida district. He quickly became a potent force within the Democratic Party, taking the campaign trail in neighboring Georgia last week to help Senator Raphael G. Warnock (D) winning his second round election tuesday.

In true Gen Z fashion, Frost aired his housing issues first on social networks.

“Honestly, I just posted it because I was pretty mad at what happened,” he told The Washington Post. His Twitter post quickly generated thousands of responses, including some from Republican critics who Frost said were hypocritical, given former President Donald Trump’s multiple bankruptcies.

The median studio rent in Washington is $2,600, compared to $1,646 in Orlando, which is in the neighborhood Frost will represent, according to Zillow.com.

Legislators struggling to find accommodation in the nation’s capital are as old a story as the elected member of parliament.

In 2000, another newly elected young member of the Florida House was shocked to find a tight and expensive housing market in the nation’s capital. “It was a pretty shocking experience to see what the housing market looks like,” said Adam H. Putnam (R-Fla.) The post office at the time. “It’s just a totally different ballgame than anything I’ve ever seen.”

Putnam, who was 26, said he and his wife visited more than a dozen locations during freshman orientation and understood why some lawmakers chose to sleep in their offices. Another new House member at the time, Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), said she found a great room near the Library of Congress for about $1,500 a month. She said it was “a lot; my house payment in Minnesota is less than that.

In 2018, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (DN.Y.) voiced similar concerns. She had worked as a bartender before quitting that job to campaign full-time. In November, at age 29, she was the youngest woman elected to the House, but she would not begin to receive a salary until the following January.

“I have three months without a salary before I am a member of Congress”, she told the New York Times. “So how do I get an apartment? These little things are very real.

Frost said he spoke with Ocasio-Cortez about the housing issues they encountered, which a number of their elected colleagues might not have picked up on.

“A lot of members coming into Congress don’t have these issues when they move because they already have money,” Frost said.

A real estate agent contacted by The Post said December is usually very slow for real estate transactions, which can make it difficult to find available units.

As of Thursday, there were 30 one-bedroom apartments and studios available for rent in the 20003 zip code that typically covers the Navy Yard area, the agent said, citing information from the Multiple Listing Service, a database that feeds popular housing sites like Redfin, although some apartments may be publicly advertised without being listed there.

The median rent for these units was $2,373; the only unit rented in the past 30 days was completed just after Thanksgiving and had been available for more than a month, the agent said. The rent for this apartment was $1,700.

For now, Frost said, “I’m probably going to have to look at individual landlords and mom-and-pop type stores when it comes to apartments. But also, I might need to couch surf or hang out with someone for a bit while I figure it out, or AIRBNB.