With just one year left before getting his bachelor's degree in advertising design from Savannah College of Art & Design, Chris Thom is now living in a tent in Camden, N.J.

"Drugs led me here," he says. "I didn't have a bad childhood, I have parents who are still together ... when I was a teenager I started dealing with depression issues that led eventually to drugs."

When he first arrived in Camden, he moved in with friends who were also doing drugs. But when they moved and he couldn't afford the rent on his own, he moved into a tent right off the highway in cluster of trees, with several other homeless people.

He's been doing odd jobs, like shoveling snow for churches, but he knows he needs to get clean before he can land a full-time gig. His family says he can move back home with them, but he is determined to get himself back on track first.

It's been hard though -- especially during such a frigid winter.

"You go to sleep cold and you wake up cold," he said. "I never thought I'd be able to deal with what I'm able to deal with ... I wake up every morning with frozen shoes -- I feel like I'm putting on wooden clogs -- and it's freezing cold every night, but you deal with it."