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.
Policy

Trading Bullets for a Better Future

Youth violence scars lives, turning America’s streets into war zones. How do we transform killing fields into training grounds for stronger communities?

Housing

Is It Just a Foreclosure Holiday?

Following the United States Treasury Department’s move this week to take control of mortgage investors Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a handful of U.S. senators Thursday showed support for a […]

Housing

What Do You Make of the Fannie/Freddie Takeover?

The markets responded well on Monday following Sunday’s announcement of Treasury’s takeover of mortgage investors Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, signaling some optimism about the long-troubled agencies. But then Tuesday […]

Organizing

Organizing a Counterattack

As John Atlas has pointed out, the GOP strategy on Wednesday night was to have vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani try to […]

JOe Biden
Policy

Obama-Biden: What Does It Mean?

The text message hadn’t yet arrived: the media, once again, by way of stakeout, pestered its way to this scoop. After 1 a.m. Saturday morning, and after leaks throughout Friday […]

Housing

Wait: How Many Houses DO I Have?

John McCain could have dismissed his inability to recall how many houses he has as a senior moment, but that would have pointed to his age. So there wasn’t any […]

With Rising Property Taxes, Should Non-Profits Now Pay Their “Fair Share”?

It’s tight here in New Jersey. And it’s because it’s crowded. With 8.7 million people, we are 11th in the country in population, but first in population density in the […]

Equity

The Mess In Texas (Houston: We Have a Recycling Problem)

The New York Times reports that of the nation’s 30 largest cities, Houston, the fourth largest city behind New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago, comes in dead last in […]

Housing

The Wave that Follows The Atlantic

When The Atlantic dropped Hanna Rosin’s story linking Section 8 housing with increases in violent crime in Memphis neighborhoods, the ripple effect went well beyond what even Atlantic editors had […]

Housing

It’s an Affordable Housing Victory, But How Do We Win Over the Towns?

Let’s get one thing clear: at least in New Jersey, we’re having the affordable-housing-as-mandate discussion. The fact that so many taxpayers, elected officials, and housing advocates in the Garden State […]

Housing

Rangel’s Wrangle with Rent Control

Charlie Rangel, the powerful chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, has been seen in recent months manicured and pressed, stumping for Hillary Clinton, and most recently, for Barack […]

Neighborhood Change

In New Jersey’s Hub City, A Push to Change Government Gets Big Government Resistance

In the 1970s, New Brunswick, NJ was struggling. Like other New Jersey cities experiencing the hangover of race riots of the 1960s, the schools were in decline, white flight began […]