Matthew Brian Hersh
Matthew Brian Hersh is senior editor at Shelterforce. E-mail Matthew at mhersh (at) nhi (dot) org.
ARTICLES IN SHELTERFORCE since jan 08
- The (Not So) Sudden Push Against New Jersey’s Fair Share Affordable Housing Policy
Pressure has been building for a long time against the red tape and inflexibility of the agency that implements New Jerseys landmark fair share housing policy. Can the spirit of Mount Laurel survive the backlash against the details?
- HUD’s New Team
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development under the Obama administration is equipped with an impressive list of housing experts at the top.
- Heard and Not Forgotten
What started out as a “weird art project” in Toronto is
providing aural illustrations into a northern New Jersey community’s past, and, organizers hope, laying the groundwork for the future. - George Moses: Organizing by Necessity
Shelterforce interviews George Moses, chairman of the board of the National Low Income Housing Coalition
- Right on Target: Reaching New Heights In DC
Vacant land gives way to residential and commercial development is a classic urban renewal storyline, but DC’s Columbia Heights is getting more than just retail and residential: its reclaiming its history.
- The Stimulus: Making Sense of it All
Between HARP, TARP, HERA, ARRA, TALF, NSP 1, NSP 2 and the rest of the alphabet soup of stimulus funding, there’s a lot of government money circulating around the country right now. How are communities using this money, and will the stimulus provide the springboard needed for equitable, sustainable change?
- Publisher’s Note
- Operation Neighborhood Recovery
Urban Essex County, New Jersey, one of the hardest hit areas in the state by the ongoing foreclosure crisis, could be the laboratory for a reinvention of community development. A local CDC there has completed the successful acquisition, by way of an alliance of nonprofits, of 47 mortgages expected to foreclose with an eye toward stabilizing neighborhoods in some of the oldest suburban communities in New Jersey.
- Great Falls And The Silk City
New Jersey’s Paterson is the nation’s oldest planned industrial city—depend on who you ask. But it has fallen on hard times since the once-booming silk industry there declined in the latter half of the 20th century. Much of the industry in this city of 150,000 has since left, but with the help of a local CDC there, as well as corporate and community partners, a geological attraction once envisioned by Alexander Hamilton as something that could be harnessed for industrial might, is fully protected, and being prepared for a makeover.
- Operation Neighborhood Recovery and the Future of Community Development
Urban Essex County, New Jersey, one of the hardest hit areas in the state by the ongoing foreclosure crisis, could be the laboratory for an ostensible reinvention of community development, as a local CDC there announced today the successful acquisition of 47 mortgages on troubled properties with an eye toward stabilizing neighborhoods in some of the oldest suburban communities in New Jersey.
- For Brooklyn’s Starrett City, Affordability is Binding
- 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?
- The Green New Deal
Majora Carter saw natural beauty and economic empowerment in her South Bronx neighborhood where others saw only a dumping ground. She’s changing the urban landscape in a way that’s been an eye-opener to people around the globe.
POSTS ON ROOFLINES
- Sep 1 · Streaming Live: The Fed’s REO and Vacant Property Strategies for Neighborhood Stabilization
- Aug 24 · What? No Investment Opportunity?
- Jul 15 · Senate Passes Financial Reform; NSP 3 Included
- Jun 30 · Walkability Dictates Severity of Housing Decline
- Jun 24 · HAMP Takes a Licking
- Jun 17 · Some Relief in the Gulf for Homeowners
- Jun 10 · Strategic Default Can Make Sense, Right? Well, Not So Fast
- May 27 · Sustainability: Still a Novel Idea
- May 25 · Not Just Affordable Housing, but Connections to Neighborhoods
- May 20 · Ford Foundation Announces Five-Year, $200M Metro Program
- May 18 · HAMP Moving Along Slowly
- May 13 · HUD’s New Plan
- May 7 · Adolfo Carrión: We Hardly Knew You! (In This Capacity)
- Apr 22 · Report Shows Growing Gap Between Income and Rent
- Apr 21 · Low Income Housing Group to Release New Housing Wage Data
- Apr 15 · Viewing Housing Within a Context
- Apr 14 · Bostic: HUD’s PD&R Was “Stagnant” In Recent Years
- Apr 13 · Maintaining Tenant Input
- Apr 13 · First, Some Perspective
- Apr 13 · In Supporting Financial Protection Bureau, Merkley Looks Back
- Apr 13 · The Case for New Vouchers
- Apr 7 · Census 2010: Stand Up and Be Counted! (Or Not)
- Mar 24 · Fed to Congress: We Don’t Want That Responsibility!
- Mar 23 · Finally Moving Toward Principal Reduction?
- Mar 22 · ACORN Facing Significant Problems
- Mar 18 · Be Counted: Fill Out the Census
- Mar 15 · Taylor: Establish Meaningful Consumer Protections
- Mar 12 · Invest In Your Values
- Mar 11 · A New Turn for the Consumer Financial Protection Bill
- Mar 11 · CRA Bill Getting a Hearing
- Mar 11 · Trasviña Hints at a Fairer Housing Act; Principal Reduction in Store?
- Mar 11 · NCRC’s Keys From the Crisis Initiative
- Mar 11 · Day 2 at NCRC’s 2010 National Convention
- Mar 10 · Going Where the Big Boats Are
- Mar 10 · Getting Through the Storm
- Mar 8 · The Administration’s Short-Sale Program
- Mar 4 · Redefining Detroit
- Mar 1 · Making Home (Really) Affordable
- Feb 26 · Housing, Transportation, and Workforce Development: A Coordinated Attack
- Feb 26 · Rivlin, SEIU’s Stern, Picked for Debt Commission
- Feb 12 · Cooper Village & Stuyvesant Town: Can’t Quite Walk Away
- Feb 1 · Modifying the Modification Program (HAMP)
- Jan 27 · The Risk In The System Starts to Come Home
- Jan 26 · “Top Of The Pecking Order” for Housing Bubble Blowups
- Jan 25 · Massive NYC Real Estate Deal Collapses
- Jan 22 · Honor Thy Mortgage!
- Jan 14 · HUD Announces NSP2 Grants
- Jan 14 · NSP2 Announcement Coming Soon
- Jan 12 · The Shadow (Inventory) Knows
- Dec 12 · A Small Victory for ACORN?
- Dec 11 · Houses Passes Wall Street Reform Bill; $1 Billion for NSP 3
- Nov 19 · Homeowner, Meet Your Lender
- Nov 17 · Stim Tracking: Let’s Get This Part Right
- Nov 17 · “An Antiforeclosure Plan That Works”
- Nov 13 · ACORN Turns Up The Volume
- Nov 6 · The Right To Rent
- Nov 2 · Housing: Code for Social, Economic, and Racial Integration
- Oct 20 · Another Tired Argument Against ACORN
- Oct 13 · Foreclosure Mitigation Plans Need Work and Need Work Now
- Oct 6 · The “Real Threat” of ACORN
- Oct 6 · If You Lived Here, You’d Be Home By Now: A Cautionary TOD Tale
- Oct 4 · IOC’s Rio Pick Could Be Good News for Chicago
- Sep 30 · Rethinking Rentals
- Sep 25 · ACORN and the Media
- Sep 18 · Roasting a Fire Under ACORN
- Sep 10 · NHC-led Task Force Eyes the Future of the Housing Finance System
- Sep 9 · Van Jones: The Green House, Redux
- Aug 26 · Lion of the Senate
- Aug 12 · …At Your Own Risk
- Aug 6 · Right Wing Taking Cues From Saul Alinsky?
- Jul 31 · The Bicycle Mandate
- Jul 15 · A Rental Option for Homeowners?
- Jul 13 · Urban Policy: Just Getting Started
- Jul 6 · Extra! Major Funding Is Provided By…Congress?
- Jul 2 · Compost Bins on the South Lawn
- Jun 29 · Tracking Job Creation in the Nonprofit Sector
- Jun 18 · Tracking the Recession and the Recovery
- Jun 9 · Seriously Commuting
- Jun 8 · HUD Wants $150M For “Geography of Opportunity”
- Jun 4 · Growing The Community Development Vision
- Jun 4 · TARP for Community Development?
- Jun 4 · Social Innovation and Civic Participation
- Jun 4 · Keep It Local
- Jun 2 · A Squatter’s Discourse
- May 22 · Beware the Myth
- May 19 · What Can 35.5 MPG Change?
- May 15 · I Want to Ride My Bicyle. I Want to Ride It Where I Like
- May 4 · Affordable Housing In Urban Centers Not Enough
- Apr 29 · History of the Housing Market
- Apr 23 · Flint: The Un-Sprawl
- Apr 21 · Donovan Touts Administration’s Housing Policies, Though Acknowledges “Daunting Set of Challenges”
- Apr 17 · Rail Time Enthusiasm
- Apr 15 · How Much Bailout Money Did Your Bank Get?
- Apr 13 · Gonzo Realty
- Apr 10 · Banks Sitting on Foreclosed Homes
- Apr 8 · Foreclosure Holiday at Fan & Fred Comes to an End
- Apr 7 · Great Falls And The Silk City
- Apr 2 · Ease Guidelines=Market Rally
- Apr 2 · Modern Community Development for a Modern Crisis
- Mar 31 · A Rail Line Toward Community Development

National Housing Institute