Matt Watkins

Housing in America Has Always Been a Moral Test. We Keep Failing. There was a time—at least in the telling—when to be American meant to come home.

Quick overview of Trump executive order & how it lines with our housing policy history

The Not-So-Great Society: Disappearing the Poor in the Name of Order In January 1964, President Lyndon B.

Thoughts on #Trump inhumane executive order on #homelessness.

Philanthropy’s Trigger Words — and How to Make Your Message Clear You say ‘equity.’ They hear ‘exclusion.’ Strategies for getting everyone on the same page.

Opinion: Philanthropy has more than its share of trigger words. Thanks to polarization, the strategic plans of nonprofits and philanthropy routinely collapse over a single word or phrase like "equity" or "civility."
phlnthrp.com/44yqK29
#TheCommons

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Why Trump Is Making Vagrancy Laws Great Again | Common Dreams Trump's new executive order on homelessness is not a departure from policy failure. It is the logical continuation of a governance model that confuses erasure with resolution.

trump just signed an executive order that rewards cities for criminalizing poverty.

i wrote about it it for @commondreams.org
www.commondreams.org/opinion/trum...

on vagrancy laws, aesthetic politics, and the violence of being made invisible.

read it. share it. let me know what you think.

Matt Watkins | Substack I write about politics, culture, language, and power. Click to read Matt Watkins, a Substack publication. Launched 7 minutes ago.

been writing a lot this year—mostly policy, politics, and nonprofit stuff, especially where it hits working-class and poor communities.

started a substack to share more freely:
🔗 mattwatkinsessays.substack.com

subscribe if you’re into it. share if you think someone else might be.

What the Texas Floods Can Teach Us About Disaster Readiness in a Changing Climate | Common Dreams What happened in Kerr County may not have been preventable. What happens next—and what happens in every county like it—absolutely is.

If we truly care about making this country great, we could start by making sure our towns aren’t wiped off the map every time it rains, writes @mattwatkinspolicy.bsky.social: www.commondreams.org/opinion/texa...

What the Texas Floods Can Teach Us About Disaster Readiness in a Changing Climate | Common Dreams What happened in Kerr County may not have been preventable. What happens next—and what happens in every county like it—absolutely is.

My most recent article @commondreams.org

"The truth is... We now live in a country where a young girl at summer camp must wonder if the river beside her bunk will rise in the night, where families face flood insurance premiums that exceed their mortgage payments..."

#BREAKING: Thomas Massie has switched his vote from a yes to a no. There are now five Republicans opposing the procedural vote.

ACLU of Wisconsin Applauds State Supreme Court Decision Striking Down 1849 Abortion Ban In a victory for reproductive freedom, the Wisconsin Supreme Court issued a 4-3 ruling declaring the 1849 abortion ban to be unenforceable.

GOOD NEWS: In a victory for reproductive freedom, the Wisconsin Supreme Court issued a 4-3 ruling declaring the state's abortion ban to be unenforceable.

Wisconsinites no longer have to fear the archaic 1849 ban could go back into effect.

www.aclu-wi.org/en/press-rel...

Thanks for sharing my article - agree completely

This is part of a larger issue the Democratic Party is having. Majority of policy opinions when polled still skew heavily left - but dems lose.

Working on follow up to this.

Thanks for sharing my article @andrewlevesque.bsky.social

To be clear for others - if you read the article, argument is not to "let Trump voters off of the hook" but insures that these policies don't reflect self reported policy preferences

"If we fail to contest it forcefully, repeatedly, and publicly it will become our reality. And by the time we understand what has been taken from us, the system that enabled it may already be too compromised to repair."

"A health clinic in El Paso will shutter its maternal care program because the funds no longer exist to keep it open. Rural hospitals across Missouri and Georgia, already under strain, will lose funding meant to keep them afloat. "

The “Big, Beautiful Bill” Is Not What America Asked For Republicans did not have a mandate for this.

My newest article in @slate.com.

slate.com/news-and-pol...

the Big Beautiful Bill is being framed as a mandate — but no one asked for mass Medicaid cuts, corporate tax breaks, and billions to ICE.

#legislation #BigBeautifulBill #Policy #Trump #TaxCuts

But the risks of a poorly run store must be weighed against the ongoing costs of inaction. In New York, nearly 1 in 4 children live in food-insecure households. The absence of public response is not neutral. It is itself a decision, with measurable health and economic consequences.