First Gen Z Congressman-Elect Denied D.C. Apartment over ‘Really Bad’ Credit

The first member of Generation Z to become a congressman-elect has reportedly been denied a Washington, DC, apartment due to “really bad” credit.

Democrat Maxwell Alejandro Frost will soon replace Rep. Val Demings (D) for her seat in Florida’s 10th U.S. Congressional District next month, but he will have some difficulty finding a place to hang his hat near Capitol Hill after a potential landlord denied him an apartment because of his credit score.

“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. This ain’t meant for people who don’t already have money,” tweeted the congressman-elect on Thursday.

According to Frost, his credit went down south after racking up debt running for Congress, and he “didn’t make enough money from Uber itself to pay for my living.”

“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,” he said.

Frost said that candidates are often barred from giving themselves a stipend until after their campaign, meaning they earn little money unless they have an alternate source of income.

“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 said.

Frost faced an uphill battle to win the primary nomination against several entrenched Democrats, running on a strict left platform with soft-on-crime policies.

In 2018, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) faced a similar problem when she had difficulty finding a place to live in D.C.

Speaking with the New York Times, AOC said she could not afford a place to live “because I can’t really take a salary.”

“I have three months without a salary before I’m a member of Congress. So, how do I get an apartment? Those little things are very real,” she told the newspaper.

On average, a one-room bedroom apartment in Washington, DC, goes for about $2,300 a month, a report by Zumper states.