MONROE — Bob Stewart does not have a roof over his head. He has a tent.

He also has some rusted pans if the cooking mood strikes him, as well as a radio and some chairs under a tarp in case he wants to entertain company.

Broken pieces of wooden mantels make doorways between trees, and an 8-month-old black Labrador named Maggie warns the 54-year-old when people approach his campsite.

As he says, “I’m comfortable. I’m not hurting for anything.”

Stewart is homeless and yet, he isn’t without a home.

Homeless campsites are not uncommon in the woods around town, Union County Community Shelter director Tim Gray said. In fact, they’re part of the reason why Gray has never seen the center’s emergency facility at full occupancy.

The emergency facility allows 48 additional people to stay at the center when the temperature drops below 40 degrees, or when it’s snowing or sleeting. Sleeping mats are placed in the dining and television rooms during extreme weather, and clients can stay there from 8 p.m. to 6:30 a.m.

But most homeless people choose to brave the elements on their own, Gray said, because they want to protect their property or because they want to remain independent.

“They would rather be outside and be able to do what they want to do than submit to society’s rules,” shelter supervisor Nelson Rice said.

One 19-year-old man who went to the shelter Thursday for dinner said surviving the elements isn’t too bad.

As long as you make sure you’re on a blanket so the ground doesn’t absorb your body heat and you have blankets to cover you, you’re generally fine, he said.

“Rain is the hardest because even with tarps, the rain will eventually go through,” he said.

“Snow isn’t really a problem because you can clear it out before it melts.”

The man, who did not give his name, said he lives with his employer in a house but stayed in a campsite for a few months with another person.

“The best thing is to live with one or two people you trust,” he said. “The more people there are, the more attention you’re going to draw.”

One 50-year-old man who is living at the shelter said he had a different experience at homeless campsites.

“Some of them are not trustworthy,” he said. “People steal and smoke crack. And if you leave anything of value there, when you come back, it’s probably not going to be there.”

But Stewart, who calls himself the sheriff of his site, said he doesn’t tolerate thieves or people using drugs. Stewart, who has lived at the campsite in western Monroe for three years, said he shares the site with two other men.

The campsite is fairly organized. Nails in one tree are devoted to cleaning supplies, including a broom, a rake and a mop, all scavenged from a trash bin.

Another tree has more than a dozen sunglasses collected over the years, as well as a knitted hat. A gutted cabinet holds their pots and pans. Nearby, four can openers hang on a hook in a tree.

The men even have a trash system: paper goes in the fire, tin cans go in the garbage bin and aluminum cans go in a large black trash bag.

“I’ve been doing this so long, this is my way of life,” Stewart said.

But it’s not an easy exchange, the independence of the campsite versus the hand up and services that the shelter provides.

Danny Helms, 58, admitted that it would be nice to sleep on a real bed instead of the ground and that it can be frustrating when it takes two hours to build a fire before you can start cooking anything.

“But it’s not that bad out here,” he said. “Rain is the only time when it’s really miserable.”

Both men receive food stamps and church groups help by visiting and donating clothing once in a while. A nearby gas station provides a wash room for the men and a laundromat gives them a place to wash up and clean their clothes.

Stewart said he sometimes goes to his sister’s house in Monroe to watch TV and visit family but that he actually will “look forward to being here.”

Stewart has thought about going to a shelter, but he said it’s too much like jail for him.

“People telling me what to do and when to leave,” he said. “I don’t like authority. I’m too old for that.”

Rice said there are several people like Stewart in the area who won’t come into the shelter, even when it’s snowing outside.

Still, during the cold winter months, the shelter tries to reach these people in other ways, by providing free blankets and jackets.

“It’s their way of life that they’ve chosen,” said the 50-year-old man living at the shelter. “They don’t look at it as a hardship because it’s not a temporary thing.”