They are taking advantage of him, and he needs to leave them behind. 

If your parents are asking you to pay rent to live in your childhood home, there’s a good chance they don’t even want you to pay rent and just want you to move out. Many parents are willing to be a soft place for their adult children to land when they’re going through hard times, so they allow their adult kids to stay at their home rent-free as long as they need. That works well if their adult kids desire to be independent, and would only move home in the worst-case scenarios. That works less well if their kids are willing to leech off of them for their entire adult lives and don’t feel a need to support themselves. 

The period between graduating from high school and attending college is usually when parents are most comfortable with their adult children living at home. After all, it takes income to support oneself, and a high school graduate will have a more difficult time supporting themselves than a college graduate or an adult with a couple of years of work experience. However, an adult child needs to leave the nest at some point. Many young adults leave their parents’ homes because they can’t stand living there anymore. Saving money on rent comes with the stress of being treated like a teenager when you’re in your early 20s. 

The young guy in this story doesn’t have peace or the ability to save money while living at home. His parents are making sure he is uncomfortable while living at home.