"Home, sweet home," Tristian 'TJ' Carpenter says as he steps off the train in Heidelberg in Melbourne's north-east.

Tristan 'TJ' Carpenter Age : 28

: 28 Lives : Magpie Nest house in Collingwood, shared with two others

: Magpie Nest house in Collingwood, shared with two others Job: Surviving on Centrelink benefits and loans

This is where he grew up and, homeless on and off since he was 17, he still considers it one of the safest places he can be. Home turf.

It's here that Carpenter comes each morning to buy a can of energy drink and sit on the shopping centre steps, smoking cigarettes and playing games on his phone — which last week he flew to Brisbane to reclaim from a pawn shop.

Today he also bought a block of cheese, but at the check-out had to forfeit the meat he'd got from the deli when it put him over budget. He'd wanted less than a dollar's worth of chicken loaf.

"If they could walk a mile in my shoes ... they'd probably have a f***ing heart attack about it," says Carpenter of the average person's understanding of homelessness. ( ABC News: Jane Cowan )

Home

"I am in Collingwood right now, in a Magpie Nest Housing Program house. I was on the streets over Christmas and New Year's. I had to stay in Epping in the industrial area in my sleeping bag for two weeks straight. It was a secluded area behind a factory with trees and everything, so no-one could see me. It was quiet, I was happy and I was left alone. I was on the streets in Brisbane, I've been on the streets in Sydney. I've been on the streets in Melbourne on more than one occasion. I've been in refuges. I've been in men's shelters. I've been in boarding houses where I've had everything stolen and had to restart all over again.

"I've been attacked. I've been set up with drugs and everything like that. I've been raped beyond compare.

"It's been a living nightmare for the past 12 years, since I was 17 when I got kicked out of my parents' house."

TJ Carpenter has been on the streets in three capital cities. "It's been a living nightmare for the past 12 years." He says a job is out of the question because he has a learning disability and a form of epilepsy that causes him to black out. ( ABC News: Jane Cowan )

Goals

"I'm getting back on my feet and at this moment I have almost completed every mission and goal I have set since January. One, finding somewhere to live. Two, getting my phone and iPad back from Cash Converters in Brisbane, which I achieved last week."

"The only goal I haven't achieved yet is finding someone decent to settle down with. That I'm still working on."

Each day Carpenter travels from Collingwood to Heidelberg, where he grew up, to buy a can of energy drink and sit and smoke cigarettes in a place he feels safe. ( ABC News: Jane Cowan )

Family

"I barely talk to any of my family. I haven't seen my dad since I was 19. My mum I haven't seen in about three years now. My grandmother I don't want anything to do with because she's just too controlling. My friends are my family. I have one female friend in Brisbane who I've known for nearly 15 years and the other one I see most nights at bingo. Those two women are my adopted sisters.

"I just try to survive the best way I can and live my life the way I like to and if no-one likes it, they know where the door is."

Getting a job

"No way to get one. Reason being I have a learning disability. Also over the past three or four years I have been diagnosed with blackouts, which is a form of epilepsy, so there is no way in hell I would be able to get a job with that illness unfortunately. I'll wake up not knowing who I am or where I am or who anyone else is."

Disappearing

A cross given to him by a friend is Carpenter's most precious possession. A close second and third are his phone and iPad which he uses to play games and watch movies and wrestling on YouTube. ( ABC News: Jane Cowan )

"I've disappeared a few times. Once I got on a train and headed straight for Sydney and then Brisbane. Turned my phone off so no-one could find me and I disappeared without a trace. Not one person knew where I was or what I was doing. Because I was sick of all the shit.

"I just wanted to go somewhere I knew I'd be happy where I could take a weight off my shoulders, stress less and enjoy myself and live the way I want to live without anyone trying to control me or use me for money or anything like that."

Happiness

Recently Carpenter spent two weeks sleeping rough in an industrial part of Epping, in Melbourne's outer north, but luckily, as the weather gets colder, he now has a roof over his head. ( ABC News: Jane Cowan )

"Happiness for me is being able to sit here and play games on my phone, watch YouTube on my iPad. I watch wrestling, action movies, comedy, romance, whatever I feel like on the day. And I like listening to music. I like rock and heavy metal, the loudness of the drums and guitar and the lyrics.

"Besides that, happiness is seeing people that are close to me, and going to play bingo most nights when I have the money."

Children

"I have a son, he's only three months old. I've never seen him. He's in human services [care] because of things that happened. My friends want me to have a DNA test to see if he's really mine, which I would if I had the money."

Money

"I pay $260 a fortnight to live in the Magpie Nest house. It's direct debited out of my Centrelink, and the rest is mine to do whatever with. I get $190 one week and $250 the next. The problem with me and what I've got going on at the moment is that one week $100 gets direct debited for two finance companies that I'm paying loans back to. Once I get them paid off I'll be able to go for new loans again."

Carpenter, pictured here with a housemate, is currently living in a Salvation Army Magpie Nest house in Collingwood and says it's the best accommodation he's ever had. "It's quiet, drug and alcohol free and I can lock my door." ( ABC News: Jane Cowan )

Haves and have nots

"I just stick to myself. I don't worry about other people because they've got their lives to deal with and I've got mine.

"If they could walk a mile in my shoes and deal with what I've got to deal with from day to day, they'd probably end up having a f***ing heart attack about it. Or they'd end up in a psych ward going nuts.

"They've got everything handed to them on a silver platter whereas we have to survive day in, day out with the bare minimum. Like even these clothes I'm wearing, I got them with the money I got from a loan last week. If it wasn't for my friend who took me shopping I probably would have spent all the money on bingo and phone credit and I'd have none of the clothes and everything I have now."

Drugs and alcohol

"Drugs, I never have and never will. Alcohol, when I was a teenager I used to drink whenever I could. These days I barely drink. The last time I had a drink was New Year's which is a special occasion to celebrate. All I do is smoke cigarettes and that's it. I've lived with people that are alcoholics and junkies and stuff like that in other boarding houses, and [in] most of those places my stuff ended up getting stolen or I'd leave because I couldn't handle it anymore, and I'd put myself on the streets just to be left alone."

Waiting for the train at Heidelberg station, Carpenter says he's been raped, attacked, robbed of everything he owns and set up with drugs during his time on the streets. ( ABC News: Jane Cowan )

Daily routine

"If I don't have a can of Mother I get up and go to Heidelberg or Preston and buy one, sit there and have that. I have four or five smokes and play my games on my phone. If it's a bingo day and I don't have the money, I get the money in the afternoon by cold biting [begging]. After bingo, I come home and make something to eat — normally I have toasted cheese and chicken loaf sandwiches, or braised steak and onion on muffins. I do get different things on occasions, like Macca's, once in a while. I stay awake until two o'clock in the morning watching YouTube and playing games. Then I go to sleep, wake up the next morning, get ready and do the same thing all over again."

Find someone to settle down with, get married and have kids is Carpenter's goal for the future. ( ABC News: Jane Cowan )

The future

"The way I see it, the best is yet to come.

My plan for the future is one day being about to get my own unit or find the one person to settle down with and move in with them and live the life I've always dreamed of. Get married, have kids, stuff like that.

"But I don't see that happening for a very long time the way things are going at the moment. I'm trying but I'm still not getting there."