Temple senior spends break with homeless

0 Comments | Philadelphia Inquirer, The, March, 2007 | by Melissa Dribben

On March 3, Temple University senior Steve Wood set out from his parents' home in Washington Township, bought a $4.25 bus ticket to Philadelphia, and headed for the streets.

Well rested after 10 hours of solid sleep in a warm bed, and carbed up on his last supper of four slices of cold pizza, he thought he was prepared for his mission: a week of class break living among the city's homeless.

Features editor of the Temple News, Wood, 21, had been planning this since February, when he and his colleagues at the paper decided the experience would give him great material for a series of articles.

"I wanted to try to get into their world, to delve into their culture, to explore a world that everybody's around but not many know," he said. "I wanted to put a face to...