Congressman-elect Maxwell Frost, the first member of Generation Z since he was born in 1997, was rejected from an apartment in Washington D.C.’s navy yard area. After spending all his money on campaigning for the last year and a half, and knowing he had bad credit he believed he would get the place. When he went into the apartment complex earlier this week, he spent an hour filling out an application and providing a $50 application fee only to be assured he would get the place from which he was later denied.

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.

— Maxwell Alejandro Frost (@MaxwellFrostFL) December 8, 2022

Later Frost told NPR that he posted the above tweet in frustration, as he learned the hard lesson on the housing situation in D.C. Casey Bugat, the legislative affairs program director at George Washington University, mentioned that the lack of affordability in D.C. has a trickle-down effect, as “it makes Congress exactly what it’s been for so long: A disproportionately wealthy, disproportionately white institution…this is a main contributor for why people can’t afford to run for office. It’s not seen as a viable path. And though we’re getting a little bit better at our diversity, we still have a long way to go and the cost of it is not getting cheaper.”

Frost highlighted the issues that many of his age-range peers face when trying to get into the area and get started with credit issues or even a lack of credit. Both of which are issues many 20-somethings have when coming into a larger city and looking for housing that can meet their budgets.