As part of our housing rights campaign, WRAP is seeking volunteers to help us with media work, public education, and distribution related to the update’s release.
Volunteers will: 1) contact reporters covering housing and homelessness issues; 2) help develop an organizers tool kit and presentation; and 3) distribute updated report to relevant organizations and policy makers. (more…)
Join Western Regional Advocacy Project, Coalition on Homelessness and Health Care for the Homeless National Consumer Advisory Board in celebrating our Human Right to exist in the place where these rights were created!
UN Plaza
7th & Market
San Francisco, CA
June 4, 2010 - 5:30 pm (more…)
A Change Is Gonna Come
The weather forecast was “continued heavy rain and gale force winds.” We knew this would impact the size of the crowd for our first public event, but it didn’t matter. The stormy weather seemed fitting for the tumultuous times we’re in. It was a sharp reminder that people live and die in these conditions all winter long. This doubled our resolve.
Around ten in the morning the rain mellowed and by the time the rally began the clouds had parted to reveal bits of blue sky that had been hidden for over a week. The plaza crowded with people and banners, energy and anticipation filled the air. There were a lot of smiles going around. Eyes shone with determination and recognition that this was the time to take the next step together in this nascent West Coast movement. (more…)
Police watched as more than 100 people blocked a busy intersection at 6th and Market yesterday, near the Federal Building, to call attention to the nation’s housing crisis. Speakers questioned national priorities, with President Obama sending 30,000 more soldiers to Afghanistan as thousands of Americans continue to be pushed into poverty and homelessness. The group, organized by Kensington Welfare Rights Union and the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign, demanded a moratorium on evictions, and vowed massive nationwide civil disobedience at the end of January if Obama has not taken adequate steps to address the housing issue. (more…)
The debate continues in Congress and across the country over health-care reform, but one group of people who have a lot of interest in the issue but are often overlooked are the homeless.
Advocates for the homeless say these individuals face complex health problems, are generally sicker and die earlier than their housed counterparts. Advocates also say the homeless are the most frequent and expensive users of emergency room and inpatient hospital care and are much less likely than those in the general population to be insured.
“It is imperative that health reform address the complex needs and life circumstances of people experiencing homelessness,” officials with the National Health Care for the Homeless Council recently said in a press statement. “Failing to do so will continue the current cycle of high-cost hospitalizations, unemployment, disability and homelessness.” (more…)