We've been looking at stories and creative writing and how we might piece together some of the residents experiences. This could well be in book form, or maybe some audio recordings. 
I was rubbish at camping, I don't mind admitting it. I used to get bundled along for impromptu weekends and as a large, not that well off family it was also our main summer holiday too. Being the youngest, I mainly was entrusted with nothing more arduous that holding things like pegs and keeping out of the way as older and more enthusiastic siblings got stuck into duties. This is fortunate as I would no doubt have endangered the lives of all involved through my incompetence or through enraging the parents to the point of actual violence. In the intervening years I have possibly got worse, to the point where changing a light bulb seems like a significant achievement.
I am sharing this vaguely humiliating information to illustrate my admiration for anyone that approaches self sufficiency without the need for Google, let alone with confidence and determination.  What would you do without a house to sleep in? What would you do if in the space of one day you had to gather your belongings together into something you can carry and then take with you to find somewhere to bed down. I might make it to a safe part of a park in summer, or consider a barn or abandoned shed in winter. I'd hope I might survive a night or two as an adventure. I reckon I could "scrump" for fruit and veg maybe but my long term prospects for foraging would not be good. It amazed me to hear the countless tales of people who have become homeless and how they have survived. One story involved "camping" for 16 years from the age of 16 and living off berries and wild animals. Another became a wilder version of "The Good Life" setting up home on an allotment with an admirable and slightly remarkable ability to adapt not just items and tools but also lifestyle. Self sufficiency, determination, fortitude, ingenuity and intelligence displayed again and again. 
There was also a good deal of humour, these stories peppered with colourful language and lots of laughter. My favourite Shakespeare moments are when the tragedy is laced with comedy, it spices the fall and also catches you off guard. Loneliness, illness, depression, alcoholism and desperation hide behind anecdotes again and again.
To eat a hedgehog you corner it, when it rolls into a ball you pack it with clay (mud) and then put into the hottest part of the fire to bake. Once it's thoroughly baked and the clay has hardened you take it out, crack the clay apart and pull it away. There is your hedgehog, the spines pulled safely away by the clay. It tastes just like chicken apparently.
The ways in which some people have their defences taken away and their protection destroyed is no less brutal. 

- Nathan Human (Citizen598)
 
We knew some elements of this process wouldn't be easy but it seems we've still underestimated the size of the task in terms of hoping to educate people about what it means to be homeless and who is vulnerable. We have spoken to two different student groups so far and the notion of being "homeless" is seen as "house less" and that you must be a rough sleeper. This is perhaps understandable but the conversations and responses to the survey clearly suggest that many still put the blame on the person who is homeless and see them as "other." 
Maybe this is something that we as people have a tendency to do - see ourselves as detached from situations and people we don't understand. In fact, "I don't understand" seems to be a common thread: 
"I don't understand how you can't have anywhere to live."
"I don't understand why you can't just stay with family."
"I don't understand why you can't just get a job and move in somewhere else."

Is this just about education? It seems that there is a definite learned attitude from some people.  Older students delivered their opinion in stronger terms whereas younger students seemed surprised by the information they were given at Action Homeless and far more understanding of the different and difficult circumstances those going through homelessness can face. 

The visit to a children in care centre also proved challenging in terms of their vulnerability to homelessness and how some have already experienced it and in certain cases, expect it. There is also a hardness and a resolve that seems forged in continually facing up to challenges and situations that it is hard to accept are part of every day reality for children who have not even taken their first exams. 

The sharing of stories and just listening - listening to all groups and all people - has been educational and occasionally emotional. We spoke to residents at Action Homeless and talked about what the project will be doing and all the ways they could get involved. The range of response went from the eager and open about what they have done before to the sceptical and keen to hide. The idea of an "exhibition" at one point went from very ambitious to slightly ridiculous and then...and then stories and listening and tea and talking and people getting to know people took over and a list grew of people want to experiment with music or creative writing, of people wanting to try photography or film, of people hinting they might like to try some art work. Home Truths might be challenging but the challenges are already being accepted and that is surely a good start for anyone, in any situation?