I’m a D.C.-based investigative reporter, editor, and fact-checker who writes about housing policy, homelessness, and social services. I’ve reported from a dozen states, both coasts, and the U.S.-Mexico border on stories ranging from the degradation of public housing in the capital to the prevalence of micro-plastics in rural Montana.
I’m keen on telling stories about who wields and abuses power, particularly in city governments. I’ve written and edited stories about the D.C. government for WAMU 88.5/DCist, and was previously a columnist at Washington City Paper, where I wrote about housing policy and urban development. My work there won an award from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies for beat reporting. I’ve also covered politics on the national level for VICE, where I reported on the 2020 Democratic presidential primary and Trump administration. While living in Southern California, I worked as a print fact-checker and writer at Pacific Standard, where I covered national politics and immigration policy.
My work has been supported by the Fund for Investigative Journalism and SpotlightDC. It has appeared in the Washington Post Magazine, Mother Jones, The New Republic, VICE, Slate, GEN Mag, High Country News, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and TalkPoverty, among other publications.
I’m originally from Miami and, no, I am neither a scion of the Baskin-Robbins empire nor the Morgan Baskin who ran for mayor of Toronto.
Email me at mhbaskin@protonmail.com or follow my work @mhbaskin on Twitter.