Meet Curtis Brodner, The Jersey Vindicator’s new housing reporter

Report for America corps member will expand the newsroom’s accountability reporting on some of New Jersey’s most pressing issues

The Jersey Vindicator is excited to welcome Curtis Brodner as its newest reporter. Beginning July 13, Curtis will cover housing affordability, one of the most critical issues facing New Jersey residents.

Curtis joins The Jersey Vindicator through Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. Earlier this year, The Jersey Vindicator was selected as one of Report for America’s 2026 host newsroom partners, joining a network of more than 175 news organizations working to strengthen local journalism nationwide.

This month, Report for America will place more than 200 corps members in local newsrooms across the country. The program provides partial salary support, training, mentorship, and newsroom sustainability coaching while helping local news organizations expand coverage of critical community issues.

Curtis was selected through a highly competitive national application process. Report for America said this year’s corps members were chosen from a pool of more than 1,600 applicants. The Jersey Vindicator selected Curtis from five exceptional finalists after an extensive interview process. Along with his investigative reporting and breaking news experience, what impressed us most was his curiosity, thoughtful ideas for engaging readers, and genuine empathy for people affected by injustice.

For The Jersey Vindicator, adding a dedicated housing affordability reporter allows the newsroom to deepen its reporting on one of the defining issues facing New Jersey residents today. Readers will begin seeing Curtis Brodner’s byline later this month as he starts reporting on the people, policies, and decisions shaping housing affordability across New Jersey.

Curtis brings a background in investigative and accountability reporting with experience covering criminal justice, local government, and breaking news. Most recently, he served as a criminal justice reporting fellow with Columbia Journalism Investigations, where he produced a four-part investigative series examining wrongful conviction reviews in New York for New York Focus. He also led an engagement reporting project with incarcerated New Yorkers and helped build a database tracking prosecutorial misconduct claims in Ohio using court records and traditional reporting.

A graduate of Columbia Journalism School, Curtis earned a master’s degree with honors as a Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism fellow. While at Columbia, he investigated retaliation against child sex abuse survivors in Hasidic Jewish communities and reported and produced an investigative podcast episode examining a police shooting. He earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism, with a minor in history, from Purchase College, where he graduated magna cum laude.

Before moving into investigative reporting, Curtis covered breaking news and local government for several New York news organizations, including 1010 WINS, WCBS 880, NewsBreak, and Bklyner, where he reported on zoning and neighborhood issues. His work has also appeared in Hyperallergic. He also co-founded Protest_NYC, a volunteer-run news project that provided real-time coverage of demonstrations in New York City and grew to more than 50,000 followers.

Most recently, Curtis worked as a research assistant for columnist Gail Collins and historian Brenda Wineapple, researching historical topics, locating archival documents, and fact-checking columns and an upcoming book.

Curtis brings strong data reporting skills to the newsroom. He has experience building databases from freedom of information requests and legal records to identify broader trends and uncover stories that might otherwise remain hidden.

In his application to Report for America, Curtis wrote that he hopes his reporting will “not only shine light on systemic dysfunction or wrongdoing by public figures, but also take the first step toward fixing those problems.”

That approach aligns closely with The Jersey Vindicator’s mission to produce in-depth investigative and public-service journalism that helps New Jersey residents better understand the institutions and decisions that affect their lives.

As housing costs continue to climb across New Jersey, Curtis’ reporting will examine affordable housing, homelessness, zoning and land-use issues, tenant protections, redevelopment, property taxes, utilities, child care and the policies that shape where and how New Jerseyans live.

We are excited to welcome Curtis to the newsroom, and we are grateful for the support from readers and Report for America that makes this new reporting position possible.

Have a story idea or tip about housing or affordability, or want to let Curtis know about your organization? Email Curtis at curtis AT jerseyvindicator.org.