Incoming Gen Z Rep. Frost can't rent an apartment in DC

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Florida Democrat Congressman Maxwell Frost, the first Generation Z member of Congress upon his swearing-in next month, revealed Thursday that he was unable to get an apartment in Washington, DC, due to his "bad credit."

The Florida legislator and former Uber driver, despite accomplishing a great feat and making it into Congress at such a young age, shared an obstacle of his on social media, one that is faced by millions of people his age all over the United States, which is affordable housing amid the rising inflation and the volatile housing market in the country.

The Democrat was a prominent activist before becoming a legislator, working as an Uber driver ahead of his victorious bid for the House of Representatives. Though Frost will be making it into the House in weeks' time, he may not be able to get a house by that time.

"Just applied to an apartment in DC where I told the guy that my credit was really bad. He said I'd be fine," the incoming legislator said on his Twitter account on Thursday morning DC time. "Got denied, lost the apartment, and the application fee," he continued, underlining the harsh reality of the US capital for those venturing into US politics without money.

"This ain't meant for people who don't already have money," the Democrat representative said.

Furthermore, he explained in the tweet's thread that he had bad credit because he accumulated a lot of debt during his campaign for Congress, which he carried out for about a year and a half before last month's midterm elections. "Didn't make enough money from Uber itself to pay for my living," he noted.

He noted that his run for Congress was highly demanding and he saw that it would only be appropriate for him to quit his job so that he can focus on being a "full-time candidate" for him to win the race. "It's not sustainable or right but it's what we had to do."

In an interview for The Seattle Times, he did earlier in the week, Frost revealed that he had been crashing at his friends' places while looking for somewhere affordable to live while waiting for his first paycheck as a member of the House of Representatives.

The comment section of the incoming congressman's tweet saw many people complaining about the housing market in the United States, highlighting difficulties they had gone through throughout their lives - from housing to politics - and how they could not focus on a life of politics due to their unfortunate economic conditions, raising questions about how fair Washington, DC, is.

I hope you can help people like me get public service jobs even though we didn’t come from economically privileged backgrounds. I was elected to student government at UVA but was never able to work in politics or government because I could not afford to take unpaid internships.

— Carter Lloyd (@WVUCavalier) December 9, 2022

Several other Twitter users were criticizing the incoming Congressman, arguing that he should not have run for office if he knew he could not rent an apartment and that he should not have had bad credit, to begin with.

Why did you run for office if you couldn't afford an apartment? It seems like financial literacy should be a requirement before running for office so people don't vote for someone who can't balance a budget.

— A Fluffy Pinecone (@AFluffyPinecone) December 8, 2022