Many Are Unable to Move Back Home During the Covid-19 Pandemic
By: David Arias
Tags: Race, Covid 19, Safety Net, LGBT, Moving

By now, you’ve all read the headlines. More millennials are moving back home amid the lockdown and unemployment rates.

Sharing space with family and losing your sense of independence appear to be the universal struggles. To contrast, many others are grateful to spend time with immediate and extended relatives. Numerous friends of mine have already parted from Los Angeles and couldn’t be happier to be back home with their parents.

What about those who are without a safety net? What about those who don’t have a place to go back to? Because there are many who don’t.

I’ve been fortunate to keep my job during the last nine months and so I’ve remained in LA. Throughout the holidays, I kept wishing I could spend Christmas with my family. Why didn’t I just move back in the first place? Technically speaking, I could continue working and save money, or even if I lost my job, have a buffer period to find work. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.

For starters, I was raised by a single mom. As such, I tried incessantly to become financially independent and, in fact, by moving away from home after high school, my mother and sister were able to rent an affordable two-bedroom apartment. I don’t have a bedroom back home. Their landlord also doesn’t permit guests to stay for prolonged periods of time. Moreover, my mother is an essential worker who still goes to her job during weekdays and has already agreed that it’s best I don’t come home.

I moved to California eight years ago, and have lived in LA two years. Toss in the lockdown and that left me a year to make solid connections. Today, I’m strung onto my last remaining acquaintance in the city for hikes in Griffith Park.

One of the closest people in my life is originally from Caracas, Venezuela. Caracas succumbed to hyperinflation, poverty and crime over the past years. There is no returning home for him, or for many immigrants. Especially when many immigrant workers are also the only source of income for their parents. Worse yet, if they’re undocumented, they needn’t rely on Congress for assistance. Undocumented immigrants aren’t eligible to receive stimulus checks.

It’s grim to read the Covid-19 statistics showing hospitalization rates for Latinos are 3.8 times higher than for Whites. It also makes sense. On average, we as Latinos don’t have the financial barriers to protect ourselves against the implications of lockdown e.g. moving back home, having more space. We’re more people in one household. All it takes is one household member who’s an essential worker to catch the virus and we all get it.

It’s no doubt this pandemic has severe mental health impacts, and even more so when you’re left without a safety net to fall back on. A mere $1800 a month on unemployment might get you by in a smaller, affordable town in one of the red states, but how dreadful would it be to reside in a conservative town as an LGBT person? An immigrant? A racial or ethnic minority?

Ultimately, anyone who moves out of major metropolitan areas wouldn’t have an easy time moving back into one without the financial resources or professional connections.