MALDEN - After her sister kicked her out, Barbara Hollis started bouncing from one friend’s house to another’s, sleeping on couches and keeping her possessions in trash bags. Couch surfing was terrible, she thought as she wandered through a neighborhood where many of her high school classmates lived.
Several nights last summer, the 18-year-old Malden High School student slept in area parks. At Suffolk Park, she curled up on an elevated rubber platform at the playground, wary that a classmate might see her. She attempted to fall asleep by counting sheep. She got to 180. “I wouldn’t say I was really asleep - my eyes were just resting,’’ said Hollis. “I could never get to a deep sleep there.’’
The number of high school students who become homeless after turning 18 has increased dramatically in recent years, far outpacing the few housing assistance programs available to them, say advocates for the homeless. Some youths leave home voluntarily to escape abusive situations, and others are forced out by parents or relatives. Youth advocates say economic hardship, family disputes, and, in some cases, the belief that children should support themselves at 18 lead
