WESTERN REGIONAL ADVOCACY PROJECT
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Mission Statement
The Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP) was founded in 2005 by local social justice homeless organizations across the West Coast to build a movement which brings people together across the local–national divide, thus giving us the strength and experience to make ending homelessness a national priority. We work with, and for, our core members and allies to advocate for the restoration of federal funding for affordable housing and build a social justice-based coalition that challenges discriminatory laws and practices which target poor and homeless people.
About This Cause
Member Organizations include Building Opportunities for Self Sufficiency, Coalition on Homelessness, San Francisco, Los Angeles Community Action Network, Right to Survive, Sacramento Homeless Organizing Committee, Sisters of the Road, St. Mary’s Center, Street Roots, and Street Spirit (a project of the American Friends Service Committee). We believe that major systemic change is necessary to end homelessness: Federal cuts to affordable housing need to be restored; misguided housing legislation needs to be defeated; and discriminatory “quality of life” laws need to be overturned. WRAP’s ambitious agenda has already led to significant results in our nine years of existence. By working with members and allies, our grassroots coalition has: • Sponsored a Homeless Bill of Rights and Fairness Act (AB5) that was introduced by California Assemblymember Tom Ammiano on Dec 3rd 2012. • Launched the Without Housing Organizers’ Toolkit, which includes a variety of fact sheets, charts, art pieces and other documents to educate our network and other audiences • Research and documented the direct impact that “Quality of Life” ordinances and the Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) have on poor and homeless people. • Supported the creation of powerful artwork like the Hobos to Street People Exhibit to change people’s perceptions and inspire action. • Released two editions of Without Housing in English and Spanish. This influential report on the root causes of homelessness which was a foundational element of our work and remains relevant today Wrap’s work on homelessness and poverty is successfully bringing together more and more groups and people who are working towards economic justice and ending the marginalization of poor people. We know that by combining our efforts we can achieve results - begin to reduce the number of homeless children in schools (1,200,000 million in 2012 – Dept. of Education), decriminalize the right to rest in public space, or stop “broken windows” policing. We are building a base for a collective movement to achieve a more just and more humane society. WRAP is the lead organizer of the Homeless Bill of Rights (HBR) Campaign in California and Oregon. This organizing campaign is a model which is and will be used by individuals and organizations that are working on Homeless Bills of Rights in other states. The HBR campaign is a way of working collectively with groups possessing different talents to address the injustices which we face in our communities. We believe that by organizing, by connecting our issues, and by creating relevant tools such as presentations and artwork, we are building the power to create a social justice movement that will eventually enable a more decent society. Our coalition includes service providers (ex.: Venice Community Housing Corporation, legal advocates (ex.: East Bay Community Law Center) and religious groups (ex.: Jericho: a Voice for Justice). WRAP is builds partnerships with different communities to increase our reach and build on shared mutual values around social justice for all. WRAP’s HBR campaign seeks to provide a framework for other communities to fight back against discriminatory laws. People living on the streets deserve support and access to affordable housing, not criminalization for their mere presence on public land. Our social-justice-based campaign seeks to create legislations which protect the following rights and prohibit the enforcement of any local laws that violate these rights: 1. Right to move freely, rest, sleep, & pray and be protected in public spaces without discrimination 2. Right to occupy a legally parked vehicle, 3. Right to share food and eat in public, 4. Right to legal counsel if being prosecuted, 5. Right to 24-hour access to “hygiene facilities.” 6. Require judges to consider necessity defense when hearing homeless related cases The core of our HBR campaign is based on our outreach to homeless and poor people, in which we document their experiences with local police and private security. We have recently surveyed 1,300 people in five states and twelve cities. The civil rights violations people are experiencing in the surveyed communities are eerily similar. The main “illegal offenses” that homeless people are being harassed & criminalized for include: sleeping 81%, sitting or lying down 78%, and loitering or hanging out 66%. This campaign is dedicated to serving the interests of people experiencing extreme poverty and homelessness. Currently, our efforts directly serve our 10 member organizations plus 119 organizational endorsers of the HBR campaign. The radius of impact, however, will ultimately expand to include poor and homeless people in states where the HBR campaign becomes active.