The present investigation aims at analyzing the identity construction processes that emerge in the course of research interviews with homeless activists who have been occupying lands and buildings in Rio de Janeiro over the last two years. The central premise for the organization of this research is based on the concepts of deviance neutralization and information control techniques, designed by Becker and Goffman, respectively. These concepts relate to interactional techniques by which stigmatized individuals negotiate their identities in interaction, so as to preferably align themselves with the canonical societal expectations of normality, while they deviate discursively from stigma. Our theoretical framework is based on authors who consider our identities not as a fixed substance nor as designed outside discourse, but as fluid, fragmented and subject to negotiation in the course of real interactions. Data were analyzed through two layers based on Biar (2012): the first applies the interactional sociolinguistics perspective, primarily the concepts of framing and face work as conceived by Goffman. We have identified the use of several linguistic resources including hesitations, vagueness in the supply of certain information, non- naming of deviant acts, among others strategies employed by our interviewees in order to present themselves in a positive light. This investigation also has identified a discursive effort on the part of respondents to amend the framings initially proposed by the interviewers. The second analytical layer considers narratives generated by these participants in accordance with causality relations and systems of coherence as designed by Linde (1993). We argue that these relations have been used by interviewees to either denote association with or distance from the activities regarded as deviant, and therefore they form part of the identity negotiation processes.