Matthew Brian Hersh

326 Posts

Matthew Brian Hersh served as senior editor at Shelterforce from March 2008 to October 2012. He studied English at Rutgers University and has spent his professional career in journalism, policy, and politics.
Housing

Forcing Banks to Buy Back Loans

On Tuesday, the Senate Banking Committee is slated to consider the administration’s nomination of Joseph A. Smith Jr., the commissioner of banks for North Carolina, to head to head the […]

Communities

Urban Ag: We’re Planning On It

In the upcoming issue of Shelterforce, we look at how urban agriculture brings not only food to communities, but also provides an opportunity to fill in vacant lots through programs […]

Organizing

ACORN’s Legacy Is Anything But “In Brief”

Tom Robbins, writing for The Village Voice, characterizes ACORN as the kneecapped star outfielder on the World Series opposition to (assumedly) the right wing’s championship team. It’s a nice literary […]

Housing

Amending NJ’s Affordable Housing Law

For four hours yesterday, New Jersey housers, advocates, and legislatures deliberated changes to the state’s affordable housing law, currently enforced by the Council on Affordable Housing, an entity Gov. Chris […]

Housing

Affordable Housing Has Mass. Appeal

Big score for affordable housing Tuesday night in Massachusetts. One of the races that we watched closely Tuesday night was a vote on a ballot initiative in Massachusetts that would […]

Housing

Massachusetts’s Affordable Housing Law

As crucial elections take place around the country today, we’ll be watching the outcome of Massachusetts’s ballot question #2, which, if passed, would eliminate 40B, the state’s 41-year-old law designed […]

Organizing

Remembering Sen. Wellstone

We’ve seen some coverage commemorating former Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone, who died eight years ago this week in a tragic plane crash. This is a good, if incomplete, look at […]

Communities

Community Development: A Love Story

Film director Michael Moore will use a $1 million film tax credit he received for his film “Capitalism: A Love Story” to launch the State Theatre/Michigan Downtowns Project, which aims […]

Housing

Taking Foreclosures to Task

All across the country, local governments, CDCs, community groups, and housing counselors are coming together to address the foreclosure crisis.

Interview

Shelterforce Interview: Sandra Henriquez

HUD Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing Sandra Henriquez spoke with Shelterforce to discuss the administration’s Preservation, Enhancement, and Transformation of Rental Assistance initiative and address some of the concerns regarding PETRA’s push to allow public housing authorities to leverage private investments. 

Neighborhood Change

Saving a Landmark in the Bronx

The deteriorating building at 1520 Sedgwick Ave. in the Bronx, also known as General Sedgwick House, is credited as being the birthplace of hip-hop, where DJ Kool Herc (Clive Campbell) […]

Housing

Walking Away Becoming Less Taboo

We’ve been talking about the pragmatic component of strategically walking away from your mortgage for some time now. For a while, there was a typical double standard where it was […]