By Nina Payne
Trinity Times Correspondent 

When it came time for Lexie Bernier to decide where to live while enrolling at Trinity Washington University, the Global Affairs junior concluded living on campus was the better option.

That choice, however, wasn’t dictated by the typical desire to fully experience university life by living on campus. The final decision came down to dollars and cents.

“It’s way better to live on campus and cheaper compared to the cost of living in D.C.,” Bernier told Trinity Times. 

The astronomical Washington rents made the option of an off-campus apartment just not affordable, so the traditional university dormitory became her destination.

As of February 2024, the average rent in the District of Columbia was $2,200 a month, according to Apartments.com. 

That cost is 49% higher than the average rent price in the whole of the United States. Washington has become notorious for its expensive housing, often comparable to New York City. 

A single-occupancy dorm room at Trinity currently costs $2,050 per 16-week semester, about a quarter of the average D.C. rental.

Housing costs skyrocketed following the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic, according to Delta Associates, a D.C.-based real estate research firm, and Washington isn’t the only city where people are struggling to pay rent. 

Half of American renters are spending more than 30% of their income on housing costs, according to a 2024 report from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, which also found that a record 22.4 million U.S. renters had become cost burdened in 2022. 

Students at Trinity are dealing with these rent prices at a time in their lives when they are juggling the expense of college and have limited earning potential while attending classes on a full-time basis.

Washington native Shaquella Rhea enrolled in Trinity’s nursing program after raising her six children and said she noticed changes in the city’s housing situation around 2002. 

“I looked around and saw new apartments being built in the city,” Rhea said, “and I knew things were beginning to change and inflation would start to go up.”

She was paying about $800 in rent for herself and her children in the early 2000’s while living in southeast D.C., but over the years she moved throughout The District and really began to experience cost of living increases, mostly due to higher rents. 

Now in 2024 Rhea lives in Washington’s Eckington neighborhood, which she sees as a gentrified part of the city, and is paying $5,467 in rent, a cost she views as wholly inappropriate for families in The District.

Luckily, her adult children can help her with rent for the house they all share, making it feasible for her to go to nursing school at Trinity.

“My children have made it possible for me to go back to college and live comfortably until I graduate,” Rhea said.

Trinity senior Lawren McCoy has lived in Washington for more than a decade and has noticed it becoming much more expensive to live in the city, making it harder to handle the rent increases. 

To help her with the challenges of paying rent as a single mom and a full-time student, McCoy enrolled in “Rapid Rehousing,” a family housing stabilization program. 

This program pays 60% of her rent, making it manageable to live while attending college.

McCoy took a pay cut at her current job to qualify for the program.

Though grateful to receive the help from Rapid Rehousing, she confessed it is a lot of work to get into these affordable housing programs D.C. offers. 

It’s a long process to be approved for one of these programs and it can be overwhelming and discouraging, McCoy said.

The District has several programs like Rapid Rehousing to assist residents with the financial burdens of rent, or even homeownership.

For instance, the Inclusionary Zoning (IZ) Affordable Housing Program provides luxury apartments at an affordable cost for D.C. residents. 

However, a resident must make under a certain amount annually, and cannot be a full-time student to qualify.

There is also the Home Purchase Assistance Program (HPAP). This program gives first-time home buyers financial assistance to buy a home. 

This program, however, has run out of money twice in the last year.

Though D.C. offers these programs, there are many requirements that must be met during the application process, such as orientations, in person classes, pay cuts, and more. 

As a single mom McCoy said it has been a challenge to keep up with rent while pursuing her degree. 

However, having virtual classes throughout her college career has allowed her to continue working, she said, adding that she has received an abundance of support from her professors at Trinity. 

Michael Rowe, director of Trinity’s Early Childhood Education Programs, has offered McCoy several resources, including assistance with food. Her family, faith, and the Trinity community has provided her with the guidance she’s needed to get through this chapter of her life.