[_dps]

I'm with you re: "pay more if you want more applicants" but this does not sound like a situation where the jobs are economically unviable.

When I was a student in LA in the mid-2000s I lived on basically this amount of money, inflation adjusted. I couldn't afford a one-bedroom, so I split the cost of a three-bedroom with two friends. This was a very common arrangement for people well into their late 20s, especially people in creative professions like writing.