High rent costs and living expenses have forced a Connecticut mother of two to move her family from an apartment into a hotel, adding to the list of unconventional living situations America’s working class has been compelled to take on to make ends meet.
Her story comes as Democrats, including party Chair Jaime Harrison, sell a message of “hope and joy” as VP Kamala Harris takes the reins for the 2024 nomination, “Fox & Friends First” host Todd Piro noted.
“Hope and joy is not paying my bills,” Suzanne Hayes told Piro when asked about the DNC’s message to voters.
While not venturing deeper into politics, she continued by saying, “I’m really just kind of focused on myself and my family and I hope that whoever is elected can make some real change in both the economy at large and this housing crisis for people like me.”
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Suzanne Hayes said high rent costs forced her to move her family into a hotel. (Fox & Friends First)
Hayes leans heavily on prayer, gratitude and faith, adding that she is lucky to have a family who can help.
Despite it all, she said “the struggle is real.”
Her search for a new place to live began when she had 30 days to move out of her old apartment, which had a set rate of $1,700 a month. When it came time to look for a new place, she was in for a shock.
“I did my due diligence and I looked in all local towns and didn’t want to give up hope that I would find a space, for me and my kids to live that was convenient. I just had no luck. It was not possible,” she said.
“I was faced with the reality that rents had skyrocketed since I was last in the market, and I was looking at homes that were two bedrooms, which is one less than I was accustomed to living in, and they were $1,000 more a month, and I quickly realized that that was unrealistic for me,” she added later.
Inflation has hit families hard in recent years, with Hayes’ being no exception. She says rent expenses are different than expenses like groceries and clothing, however, because money can be stretched a little further with the latter.
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High rent costs have affected many Americans in recent years, forcing some to turn to other living situations, including roommates or even living in vans. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
“When it comes to housing being $1,000 more a month, there’s just nothing that can be done,” she explained.
Pushed to the point of potentially moving in with her parents, she weighed her options and began making calls to local hotels, where she eventually found a more affordable solution to her problem. She told Fox News she considers her current living situation to be a “blessing.”
“I kind of pulled out all stops and emailed local hotels and found this place, and it ended up being a great, huge blessing for me and my kids.”
High rent costs and little hope of compiling enough money to afford a home has left many Americans, especially younger generations, opting for alternative living situations.
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Some millennials, including TikToker Michael Alberse, have chosen to live in vans for at least some time to accumulate money to go toward their homeownership dreams.
“I’m seeing this become wildly popular because they’re getting rid of that $2,000 rent burden, and they’re able to use that money to save for a down payment. Because the bigger the down payment, the less income you need to qualify,” Orlando-based realtor and TikToker Freddie Smith said.
But the problem has also impacted the elderly in some ways, leaving a number of them to open their homes to non-relatives to help those looking for smaller living expenses in the new “Boommate” trend.
Taylor Penley is an associate editor with Fox News.
