Pandemic Sends College Students Back Home

“I want to move on with my life, but I’m stuck in my twenties feeling like high school never ended,” Isabella LeGrand said.

LeGrand can walk out into a thirty-foot backyard and barely catch sight of her neighbors. She misses the city air, the E train and New York City life. The house in Orange County, New York where she lives with seven other family members, is two hours from New York City and feels like another universe.

LeGrand’s family moved to the Hudson Valley from Queens because of the pandemic. They could not afford to continue to live in the city. “My family decided that Queens was too expensive. Well, everywhere in the city is expensive, so we went to the middle of nowhere because that’s better than living in the street,” LeGrand said.

But in her new community she feels like an outsider and has started to feel more insecure because people stare at her.  “It’s not so welcoming when you’re Black moving around people who aren’t used to seeing Black people. In the city, everyone’s focused on themselves. Here people are so focused on each other. I never even saw myself the way they do.”

Millennials like LeGrand have lost a part of their independence because of COVID-19 restrictions and layoffs. A study by TD Ameritrade found 39% of millennials have moved back in with their parents, or are planning to.

Melody, a City College of New York (CCNY) student who asked to remain anonymous, has been unemployed for a year. She questions her plans for the future. The Staten Island native worked part-time in retail at the start of the pandemic and her salary helped pay for her room at The Towers, the CCNY dorms.

She enjoyed living there and had other plans to live on her own. “The dorm is worth the introduction experience for college, but I was planning on getting an apartment with the people I met there. I made plans. I felt like I was becoming a grown-up, and now I live with my mom,” Melody said.

LeGrand also worked in retail before the pandemic and she does not see a way back. Retail stores have fewer people working and do not seem likely to add more soon. She continues to study to earn her associate degree online through Orange County Community College.

Recently, she received her acceptance letter for Queens College and hopes to complete her bachelor’s degree in her hometown. She is trying to find roommates to ease the cost of city living. But most of the people she talks with say they too are moving out of the city or in with parents.