Hi! I’m Thomas Bates III — a writer, photographer, and social worker based in Washington, DC.
This site collects my writing, resume, and occasional updates.

As a writer, I focus on what it means to be good, identity, and culture. Occassionlly, I post longer book and film reviews. I typically publish on TBinDC, my Substack.

As a photographer, I try to capture what I see and feel. I typically shoot on black & white film and develop at home. You can see some of my work on Flickr.

As a macro social worker, I focus on poverty alleviation and ending homelessness. I think about data, artificial intelligence, capacity, and how systems work.

As a maker, I fiddle with 3D printing things to support other hobbies, like photography, electronics, and home automation stuff.

All opinions are my own, and do not reflect my employer or any groups of which I’m a member.

Three Parades

Thomas Bates published on 2025-06-20 included in Essay

I started to write something highfalutin about the progression of Pride, Protest, and the Military parade that happened in DC last week. I had nearly 3000 words written, but it felt disjointed, overstuffed, and unfocused. Unfixable.

View the Album on Flickr

I do not know how to reconcile that a Pride parade happened in Washington D.C. at the same time as Federal programs are eradicating sexual orientation and gender identity data from their datasets. I am not sure what I should take away from a Starbucks float rolling down 14th street while a few blocks away someone is cooking up a plan to strip resources for queer people out of the 988 hotline.

Two Critiques of the Proposed Social Work Licensure Compact

Thomas Bates published on 2022-07-27 included in Social Work

The Council of State Governments (CSG), Department of Defense (DoD), and the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) have partnered to draft an interstate licensure compact for social workers. The Compact is currently available in draft for public comment.

Many professions have interstate compacts allowing work and life to flow across State lines. Some large organizations (such as the VA) already accept out-of-State licenses. The proposal, as written, would undoubtedly make the practice of social work significantly easier for many social workers. However, the proposal does not meaningfully support new social workers or macro workers. It also fails to protect all social workers from the piling on of many (many) fees across States, but letting States squeeze underpaid social workers for cash is perhaps a requirement if we want something like the Compact.

Ban Source of Income Discrimination in Illinois

Thomas Bates published on 2021-09-16 included in Housing

Source of Income Discrimination is one of the most significant barriers to housing people experiencing homelessness, right behind lack of affordable housing. The concept behind a housing voucher is, essentially, to make housing that is unaffordable become affordable. There is already a significant shortage of affordable housing¹ throughout Illinois, and not enough serious policy effort aiming to affect this shortage.

Meanwhile, since the pandemic’s beginning, we have seen a huge influx of financial resources to organizations working to end homelessness. These new programs are often authorized with very little consideration for how they will interact and compete with one another, let alone the needs of the clients they are expected to serve. Yet, the dollar amounts attached to them are tremendous. Here’s a short list²: