Lewis taxi driver Donald John Macrae, 51, told a trial that Liam Aitchison had previously been sleeping rough in the rundown house in Steinish where the boy was later found dead.
Johnathan Mackinnon and Stefan Millar, both 22 years, deny murdering Liam Aitchison in a derelict house at Steinish outside Stornoway.
It is alleged the two Lewis men repeatedly hit him on the head and body with a knife and bottle and repeatedly kicked and stamped on his head.
Witness Donald John Macrae, from Shawbost, Lewis, was delayed from getting to the trial because bad weather resulted in the cancellation of the Stornoway ferry yesterday.
Giving evidence, Mr Macrae, who is also a councillor for the Harris and South Lochs ward, agreed he knew the rundown property in Steinish.
He said: “In all fairness I think everyone knew that place
“It was a shack, there was nothing in it.”
He indicated it had been used for clandestine trysts in the past.
The witness said Liam “was sleeping there. He was a guy sleeping here and there. On Lewis he was a homeless kind of guy.”
He said he had driven Liam to the property “a couple of times” but couldn’t remember the last time he dropped him off there.
Liam seemed “down” when he last saw him, believed to be in November 2011.
He said: “Normally, he was a jovial kind of guy -
Mr Macrae told defence counsel Iain Patterson he offered to financially help Liam after Mr Macrae returned from a holiday break and Liam replied: “If I last that long.””
Mr Macrae said: “Those were his last words to me. I felt guilty. I still feel guilty to this day.”
