THE GEN THE GEN

axwell Frost made history during the 2022 midterm election when he became the first member of Generation Z to be elected to Congress. Running on a platform of eliminating gun violence, establishing Medicare For All and transforming the criminal justice system, the young Central Florida candidate embodied the values lobbied for by much of the youth across the nation.

And when Frost arrived in D.C. in January 2023 to begin his term, he made history again—as the first Gen Z member of Congress who couldn’t afford a place to live, owing to his credit history and the capital city’s skyrocketing housing costs.

(“I’m probably just going to have to, like, couch surf for a little bit,”Frost told ABC’s “This Week.”)

Frost’s issues with housing insecurity are shared by a growing number of members of Generation Z, those born between 1997 and 2012. A 2022 study by personal finance company Credit Karma revealed that nearly 30 percent of Gen Zers aged 18-25 live at home with parents, and nearly one-third of those who rent a space (44 percent) or who own a home (23 percent) spend more than half of their monthly income on rent or mortgage payments. The bleak outlook for home ownership has some Gen Zers taking on a more politically active role in effecting change.

Elijah Manley, 24, understands housing insecurity better than most. Several brushes with homelessness as a child helped spur his political ambitions, and in 2022 Manley ran for the Florida House of Representatives to represent District 94 in Broward County.“I made that decision to run because I wanted to have some representation in Tallahassee that understands what it’s like to be homeless or to go without,” says Manley.