Our Mission:

Western Regional Advocacy Project exists to expose and eliminate the root causes of civil and human rights abuses of people experiencing poverty and homelessness in our communities.

Our Goals:

• to unite local social justice organizations to build a movement that is inclusive and shares power with all members of the community
• to hold the federal government responsible and accountable for the restoration of affordable housing funding and the protection of poor and homeless people's rights
• to develop with the community effective and socially just solutions to all barriers that prevent the ending of homelessness
• to ensure the policies and priorities of local, state and federal governments are grounded in the common truths of a majority of poor and homeless people

We are seven west coast organizations with a long track record of organizing with poor and homeless people from the bottom-up. We’ve come together to create WRAP because we believe things have to change.

From LA to Seattle, the clear trend is toward growing inequality and heightened repression of people who are poor.

In Los Angeles, homeless people are routinely arrested and jailed for such poverty crimes as camping and sleeping on the sidewalk. In San Francisco, Portland, and Berkeley, sweeps of homeless encampments have become routine, where people lose their meager belongings and sometimes even end up in jail. Seattle, one of the most forward thinking cities in the nation when it comes to homelessness, is losing ground as runaway condo development trumps their strong efforts to build more low-income housing.

WPA poster, 1936
(We've been here before: Think New Deal)

Up and down the west coast, we’re seeing the same things: declining affordability as our urban centers become islands of wealth, and a trend toward the criminalization of the very poor.

Meanwhile, the federal government continues to starve public housing of the resources it needs to succeed. Between 2004 and 2006 alone, HUD funding was decreased by $3.3 billion, and in 2008, an additional shortfall of $2 billion in Section 8 project-based housing is anticipated.

WRAP was founded with the belief that social change comes through building power, and that poor and homeless people are part of the solution. We are dedicated to exposing the roots of the housing crisis, building pressure for more just federal priorities, and defending the human and civil rights of low and no income people.