In recent weeks, countypress.co.uk has run several stories about homeless hostels potentially being set up in Newport and Sandown.

The hostility to these plans immediately became evident, with many comments suggesting the planning applications were unwelcome, with property values, crime and anti social behaviour cited as reasons the hostels (or HMOs) would not be welcome in these locations.

The story was spotted by former County Press reporter Hattie Pilkington-Rowland, who now lives in South Wales but has had her own encounter with homelessness.

Hattie has written down her experiences and hopes her insight will give people another view on homelessness.

Alan Marriott, County Press editor, said: "Having worked with Hattie during her time with the County Press I was truly shocked to read of her problems.

"Hattie was well-loved by her colleagues and several of us are still in touch with her.

"Her words here show that demonising the homeless is not something that puts society in a good light."

Hattie's story...

Isle of Wight County Press:

"Eventually I am offered a flat in Abergavenny. I laugh with delight.

Another student gaff full of rubbish furniture and dodgy water pressure. I actually like it.

I think of my uni friends, all so well off now.

I did things the other way around. Inherited vast amounts when I was young, gave a great deal away, p'd the rest up the wall travelling, pitching up in Florence and enduring a slow, almost unnoticed mental breakdown following the drowning of my mother. My father died of booze a couple of years earlier.

In short, my pals climbed the ladder whilst I slowly descended it. I cannot compete with the luxury holidays and shenanigans on Facebook. I wonder if I care. Decide I don't ... much.

Onwards. I have made friends for the first time in years. I am writing again a little. I have plans and hopes and an open heart.

Things to do, laughs and kisses to be had for the first time in years. I see that contentedness is more important than happiness, which is only fleeting, after all. I see the real value of things, of people, perhaps for the first time.

Sometimes my heart bursts for the world. That is the only, hackneyed way by which I can describe it.

Money. There's the rub.

My thoughts and perceptions on that issue have completely shifted. I stagger from one month to the next, sometimes with only pennies until the next payment.

No jobs for 55 year old journalists or heritage specialists out there, and who wants an old, technically illiterate hobo with 16 screws in her back who can neither sit nor stand for long?

But I override that. You can sit in a corner and give up or carry on and live. I choose to live.

My friends help me out from time to time. I dare not say more, or I will also be sanctioned, won't I?

Isle of Wight County Press:

No two ways about it. I gladly lay my head on the line, because everyone needs to know this simple fact.

What outrages me more, though, is that it seems it is not bad enough to be on benefits; one also has to be punished for it.

Not for us the pleasures that most take for granted, such as fish and chips, a new shirt, a coffee or drink out.

Having to constantly stretch every penny and sacrifice butter for beans or not use the electricity is exhausting and consistently humiliating.

The reality is, judging from other benefits claimants I have met, that few are conning the system.

We are real people, not figures in a draconian government ledger. I believe we deserve better; not much, but just enough to bring desire and energy back into life. Because it is also tiring to have to stoke one's own boilers of ambition when the coal is always running so low.

There but for the grace of God; that old adage we know so well. It can happen to any of us at any time.

Guard your space and your lives well, I implore you.

I have lost everything, but have gained so much more in terms of how I view and inhabit this planet. I am free, loved and loving, with my feet on the ground. I am politicised and loving it.

The mantle of my 'place' in society has been shed. I am still stateless, but now I travel much lighter."

All pictures courtesy of Susan Lyons.