"Just some kind of shelter, that's all I need; I can go on living like I do now," Alla said. " If they just give me a hut or something, I can sit inside it and know I have a roof over my head, I won't be outside in the rain and the cold."

Alla, from Gyumri, has been living in the park across from Yerevan's Central Post Office for six years now. She has twelve dogs, and a couple of friends who visit from time to time bringing water and vodka. She can hardly walk. "I fell off a wall and broke my right kneecap," she explained. "I've been laid up ever since. If I use a cane, I can barely manage to stand up. I didn't even have a good cane. A German guy from the Red Cross saw the shape I was in and brought me a cane, so I can take a couple of steps when I need to."

There are fountains in the park but they're turned off. Alla put an old couch in one of the fountains, and that's where she lay down. She interacts with the people who bother to stop and chat, and keeps up on world events on a broken-down radio. Though she has a hard time getting money for vodka, she always sets aside enough for batteries, so she can listen to the news. Her radio needs fixing, though, and all that comes out of the speakers right now is static.

Alla was born and raised in Gyumri. At seventeen, she was convicted of disturbing the peace and sent to jail. "Then I kept getting into fights with guys, and getting charged with hooliganism. I have nothing to hide: I was in prison for 14 years altogether," she said.

Alla was in prison during the 1988 earthquake, while her family was buried under the rubble. "A miracle happened along with the earthquake," she said. "My family was gone and I was left without a home. Being in prison actually saved my life." When she got out, Alla got her life together. Through the Prosecutor's Office, she got her papers, found a job, and rented a room in a Yerevan hostel.

"Then I married a garbage collector and ended up on the street. He brought me to live in a basement, and then he stole something and ran away, and I was left alone," Alla remembered sadly. Because of what her husband had done, the landlord kicked her out, and she's been living in the fountain ever since. Alla is grateful to the residents of nearby buildings for not ignoring her and for helping anyway they can. "They bring food for me and my dogs. I collect bread for chickens and bottles and sell them, and people come to buy them. I buy gas with the money and vodka. I drink so I can keep on going. I have some friends who bring water and vodka because I can't walk," she said.

In the six years she's been here, she's never received any medical care. People always come to visit during election campaigns, to videotape Alla and show how much they care about people like her, but no doctor has ever come to examine her leg. With treatment, she might be able to walk again, to recover from the ulcers cause by so many years of lying down, even to find a job and a place to live.

As it is, Alla's only happiness is her dogs. "They're homeless like me. Why shouldn't I take care of them? They're living creatures. Kind people and God take care of me, and I take care of my dogs," Alla said. "People help and then leave, but these animals stay with me. I talk to them. I get mad at them-I'm only human. They're my friends, my family. I love them very much. How could I not love them? They're by my side all day. God says 'Love thy neighbor', doesn't he?"

Photos by Onnik Krikorian