I noticed a short story over the weekend where the NY City soon-to-be House Representative.....Ocasio-Cortez....did a chat and admitted that she's shocked at rental prices in DC, and won't be moving until she gets her first 'pay-check'.
So the basic truth is that if you wanted a decent two-bedroom apartment, in a guarded or secure building, with some privacy....it's going to be in the range of $2,400 (minimum). This is the base cost for someone in her position, living within five miles of the capital building. Going outside of the 'zone'? If you made it around ten miles out, you might be able to get your rent situation down to the $1,500 range.
My guess is that she's going to 'accidentally' find someone who has a condo in the region and will be out-of-town most of the time, and they will sub-lease it to her for 'super-nice' price (maybe $1,000 a month). Rigged-up? More than likely, but no one conducts audits on Congress folks, and there's probably well over fifty of the House members who live in this type of arrangement.
This is one of the serious problems in procuring a seat in the House or Senate. No one has ever conducted a survey of living arrangements of the Senate or House members, and they'd balk if you attempted one. For a number of years....one particular US Senator lived out of a basement apartment of his chief-of-staff's home. There's also the story of the one House member who slept in his office Monday through Thursday night, and flew back home each weekend (his wife balked at moving to DC).
If you go back historically, in the 1800s, a lot of the political folks stayed at boarding houses, and even shared beds with each other.
But this brings out a weird question to ask Ocasio-Cortez....how did you survive in the NY City rent situation? No one seems to ask that question.
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