- [Interviewer] Alyona, here we are in Pasadena
and you're homeless
and you're flying a sign, "Going to college".
Tell me about it.
- Well, I moved out of my parent's house at 18.
They were helping me with the rent.
I used to live on Bonnie.
I'm going to school as full-time student.
I had, like,
six to seven classes a day
and
I lost the apartment
because I couldn't pay the half of the rent
because my parents all of the sudden decided,
"No, I'm not going to help you."
My mother has mental issues, a little bit,
so that came into play
and our friends decided to help us out.
We talked it about two weeks in advance
that we were going to move in with them
and everything was set up
and at the very last minute, he said no
and all of our stuff was in his garage
and everything got stolen.
Everything since I was seven years old was stolen
because I'm adopted from Russia.
And so
I had to ...
Ever since then my boyfriend and I, Jonathon,
which I met at PCC,
we've been homeless.
- [Interviewer] And you're both going to college.
- We're both going to college still.
I only have two classes.
I'm trying to major in theater arts
and he's majoring in zoology
and he only has two more classes until he gets his AA.
- [Interviewer] That's amazing.
It's gotta be hard going to school while you're homeless.
- It's hard to manage of thinking
where are you going to sleep tonight to your homework
and to going to class and managing your classes
and where are you going to stay tonight.
Like last night, I slept in a park with two blankets.
Very thin blankets and at nighttime,
as hot as it is, it gets very cool at night.
- [Interviewer] So last night you slept outside?
- A lot. I've been sleeping outside for a very long time
and unless I can get $50 a day,
which takes me an hour and a half to two hours to make,
I get a hotel room and I put that money
towards food, a hotel room, and a shelter
and if can't do that,
then I'm on the street.
- [Interviewer] What's flying a sign like?
- Flying a sign takes a lot of pride away from me
because, you know,
it's not looked greatly upon when you fly a sign.
You know, it's a good way to know who your friends are,
because I had friends when I was eight years old until now
and they see me fly a sign one day,
drove right past me and wouldn't acknowledge me at school.
They made it seem as if I didn't exist anymore.
And so it's really a good thing
to know who your true friends are.
- [Interviewer] How do people treat you?
I mean, because if you're making money,
people don't really know how much it just messes with you.
- It messes with you emotionally
because it puts you down.
It's like I'm all the way down
at the barrel trying to survive
and I gotta fly a sign.
You know?
And a lot of people yell out in their cars,
"Get a job. Get a job."
And I'm trying,
but with the way the economy is going ...
I mean, I used to go up and down Colorado
trying to get job applications
and most of it is online
and I went to PCC to fill it up,
but as soon as they found out I'm homeless,
they wouldn't take me.
- [Interviewer] What's your future like?
- My future, I'm hoping, is that we can get an apartment,
my boyfriend gets SSI
and so he gets about $800 a month,
We have a couple people who are
trying to work with us being homeless and affording
a $600 rent.
- [Interviewer] Because you don't
have first and last month's rent?
- No.
- [Interviewer] That's the deal?
- Yeah.
- [Interviewer] If you had three wishes,
what would they be?
- My first wish would be that we
can get a roof over our head.
Second wish would be that we would have a prosperous life.
And third wish would be that
everybody would just be kind to each other and peaceful
because that would make the world a lot better.
- [Interviewer] Well, thank you very much for talking to me.
- Thank you.