BummerBy Melissa Dribben
Inquirer Staff Writer
Last Saturday, 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 the homeless."

Five days before beginning the experiment, he stopped shaving, to blend
in better. He had interviewed a homeless man who hangs around Temple to
get tips on panhandling and places to sleep.