Alyona is a 19-year-old homeless college student ‘flying a sign’ in Pasadena to get enough money for a hotel room. The night before she slept in a park.
Pasadena is a small town outside of Los Angeles and you wouldn’t think of a town like Pasadena as having a homeless problem. In fact, I recently moved to Pasadena because I wanted a little more quiet, and to hopefully get a break from homelessness. But every day driving home after working at the shelter I’m seeing more and more people panhandling at the exit ramps.
Alyona was going to college full time but for whatever reason, her parents stopped paying the rent. She and her boyfriend made plans to live with a friend and that turned out to be a horrible situation resulting in Alyona getting everything stolen.
I have huge respect for Alyona and her boyfriend for doing what they can to stay in school while homeless. He has two more classes before he gets an AA degree is zoology and she’s still taking classes in theater arts.
