A few months after starting work at the Philadelphia Inquirer, covering Camden, N.J., for the metro staff, Eric was asked to undertake a special assignment. The nation's public housing system was broken. Nowhere was this more evident than in Philadelphia. The metropolitan editor, Steve Seplo, asked Eric to find a way to move into a public housing project as a tenant, blend in, observe, then come back and tell the story of what life is like for tenants.
Nine months later, the results were published in the Inquirer Sunday magazine along with page after page of amazing photographs by Larry Price.
Eric did not move into public housing as a tenant. After weeks of conducting research and making contacts, he found a family willing to take him in, but they changed their mind at the last minute. Acel Moore, a long-time Inquirer editor and writer with deep roots in the city, introduced Eric to a mid-level public housing official who was willing to help. But because there was a long list of needy applicants for vacant apartments, the official suggested assigning Eric to a maintenance detail at Southwark, one of the city's largest housing projects.
No one at the housing project, not even Eric's supervisor, knew that he was a reporter. He worked in maintenance for two weeks. Then he shed his secret identity and spent the following months returning frequently to Southwark as a reporter, conducting interviews, hanging out. He had begun writing the piece when Larry was assigned to the story. Eric began returning to Southwark frequently to accompany the photographer.
Snow was on the ground when he began reporting the story in February 1984. It was snowing again when it finally was published in November.
Temple University invited Eric to teach a course in public housing after the piece was published, but he demurred. The story was awarded the National Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi bronze medallion for best magazine story of the year.
Surviving in Southwark
