Getting one?s own place before 18 can be a crash course in independence The first time Crystal Stokowski lived alone, she was approaching 16. The apartment was an unfurnished three-bedroom with two living rooms, an enormous space with radiators too weak to keep out the chill of winter in Massachusetts, which hit shortly after she moved in. Stokowski warmed herself by the oven while eating cheap, easy-to-prepare meals: frozen lasagna, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, ramen noodles, rice and seaweed, and ?so much bread.?
She had moved out of her family house as a matter of necessity. ?I came from an abusive home, and at that point, I couldn?t take it anymore,? Stokowski says. Growing up, her family had a ?weird reputation? around town; the cops would regularly show up to their house, and though nobody addressed the situation directly?not the police, neighbors, clergy, nor teachers and guidance counselors at school?a woman from church had a sense of what was going on. She hired Stokowski to help out around her house and with her children, offering her a room in exchange. The arrangement didn?t work out well, Stokowski says, but the woman gave her another option: She could live in the third-floor apartment of a different house the woman owned, pay a small sum in rent, and help fix the place up. Stokowski agreed. She had dropped out of high school and was working two jobs, one at a photo studio that did yearbook pictures and another at J.C. Penney Portraits in the local...