WRAP News

Call to the Community to join a Coalition With the Homeless In Fresno County, February 21st

Posted on February 10, 2012 by WRAP Comms

On Tuesday, 2/21, we will hold a forum at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Fresno, 2672 E. Alluvial (between Chestnut and Willow) at 6pm to engage groups, houses of worship, and individuals in beginning a strong Coalition with the Homeless in Fresno County.

Click here to download the flyer.

The Agenda includes a slide show to update you and your group on what has happened to the homeless, keynote speaker Paul Boden from the Western Region Advocacy Project (a homeless organizing group), a panel of currently homeless people will speak, and a call to action will be made. Continue reading →

Posted in Actions, Advocacy, Civil & Human Rights, Events, Local Government, Organizing, Poverty, Rural Homelessness, Urban Homelessness | Leave a comment

WRAP Member Spotlight: Sacramento Homeless Organizing Committee

Posted on February 7, 2012 by WRAP Comms

Sacramento Homeless Organizing Committee (SHOC) was formed in 1987 in response to a new camping ordinance. We organized a legal challenge to that ordinance which was struck down as unconstitutional, but the City soon enacted a new camping ordinance, which has further been altered and no longer takes shelter capacity into consideration. We continue to address civil rights for homeless people, working towards ending laws and policies that criminalize homelessness. Continue reading →

Posted in Civil & Human Rights, Organizing, Poverty, Urban Homelessness, WRAP Members | Leave a comment

No fooling, National Day of Action for the Right to Exist: April 1st

Posted on January 26, 2012 by WRAP Comms

“They want us out of our community!”
“We’re always told to move on, but to where? There are no places for us to be.” — Survey Respondents

WRAP and the USA-Canada Alliance of Inhabitants (USACAI) are calling on our members and allies throughout the United States and Canada to join us on April 1 for a bi-national day of action to protest the ongoing criminalization of poor and homeless people in our communities.

We are building a movement to reclaim our communities for all members: not just those who set the rents. In order to build this movement and assert our human rights, we must make clear the myriad of ways in which our community members are treated as though they are less than human. We must “connect the dots.” Continue reading →

Posted in Actions, Advocacy, Civil & Human Rights, Events, Local Government, National Allies, Organizing, Poverty, Uncategorized, Urban Homelessness, WRAP Members, Without Rights | Leave a comment

Letters of support needed for St. Paul Residents in danger of being evicted

Posted on January 13, 2012 by WRAP Comms

Friends and Allies, members of the National Campaign for the Restoration of Housing Rights and associated enterprises!

We are organizing with tenants in a 60 unit apartment complex in St. Paul, Minnesota under imminent threat of displacement. We’d like your help. Specifically, some support messages from member groups would be a real shot in the arm for the tenants. Continue reading →

Posted in Actions, Affordable Housing, Civil & Human Rights, Family Homelessness, Local Government, National Allies, Organizing, Urban Homelessness | Leave a comment

National Scandal of Using Jails as Psychiatric Wards

Posted on January 6, 2012 by WRAP Comms

The cruelty and medical neglect suffered by poor and homeless people who are incarcerated for being mentally ill is a national disgrace. It is unacceptable that the prison system has displaced the mental health system as the main institution for dealing with poor people with psychiatric disabilities.

The criminal justice system has displaced the mental health system as the main institution for dealing with poor people with psychiatric disabilities in the United States. Federal cuts to mental health and affordable housing programs are responsible for this shameful reality. Continue reading →

Posted in Civil & Human Rights, Local Government, Organizing, Poverty, Uncategorized, WRAP Members, Without Rights | Leave a comment

Special Report: Photo stories of Asperger’s Syndrome

Posted on January 6, 2012 by WRAP Comms

Below you will find five feature stories produced by Street Roots, Leah Nash and the Regional Arts and Culture Council on understanding Asperger’s Syndrome.

The project was made possible in partnership with Street Roots and the Regional Arts & Culture Council in an effort to chronicle the diversity of this complex diagnosis of autism, illustrating the challenges and beauty of an unconventional life. Continue reading →

Posted in Street Roots Blog, Uncategorized, WRAP Members | Leave a comment

Making a dream reality: Right 2 Dream Too’s success flies in the face of skeptics.

Posted on January 6, 2012 by WRAP Comms

by Joanne Zuhl, Street Roots staff writer (Photos by Israel Bayer)

It was supposed to be about the city’s new plan to allow limited car camping for people experiencing homelessness. But testimony at Wednesday’s City Council meeting became an extended appeal for another camping option, one that’s been, almost unanimously, highly successful for nearly three months.

During more than an hour of testimony, a series of people — many homeless — testified in defense of Right 2 Dream Too, a structured camp at the corner of Fourth Avenue and Burnside that is home to about 70 people experiencing homelessness.

The group has a year lease for the property, tacit support from leaders in the neighborhood and no problems with law enforcement. It has a board of directors, regular meetings and is pursuing its own nonprofit status. It has received financial support from the community and has its own portable toilet. Continue reading →

Posted in Actions, Advocacy, Affordable Housing, Blog, Civil & Human Rights, Events, Family Homelessness, Organizing, Poverty, Street Roots Blog, WRAP Members | Leave a comment

Decmber 12th Hearing on Increased Family Homelessness

Posted on December 9, 2011 by WRAP Comms

Avalos is holding a public hearing on Monday December 12th — THIS Monday — at 10:00 am on the surge in family homelessness.

We now have 2,200 homeless children enrolled in public schools, and the highest wait for shelter ever for homeless families – with more coming every day!

We have been trying to get a meeting with the Mayor on this, and we need your help to get SF to respond to this crisis!

Please come and testify on the need for a strong city response. This is extremely important to keep the pressure on!!!! We need solutions and fast!

Monday December 12, 2011
City Hall Room 250
City Operations and Neighborhood Services Committee

Posted in Actions, Advocacy, Affordable Housing, Family Homelessness, Federal Government, Organizing, Poverty, Urban Homelessness, WRAP Members, Without Housing | Leave a comment

2012 HUD BUDGET FACT SHEET

Posted on November 21, 2011 by WRAP Comms

The purpose of this fact sheet is to provide a historical basis for understanding the affordable housing cuts in HUD that once again were included in the Federal Congressional Budget process. A half-billion or even a billion dollar cut here and there may not sound so severe when looked at in isolation, given the size of the overall budget. But when looking at the 38-year-cycle of draconian cuts to our nation’s affordable housing programs and the direct correlation of how this created and perpetuates homelessness, we can better understand and hopefully fight against these continued attacks on the human right to housing. Continue reading →

Posted in Affordable Housing, Civil & Human Rights, Family Homelessness, Federal Government, Poverty, Urban Homelessness, Without Housing | Leave a comment

Coalition on Homelessness-Encampment

Posted on November 16, 2011 by WRAP Comms

I hadn’t realized how much hope I’d lost. For the first couple week of Occupy Wall Street, I watched with relatively little interest from the sidelines. Most of my updates came from the constant badgering of sometime Street Sheet writer Carol Harvey, who was hip to the importance of the movement weeks before I was. I just had to go down, she would tell me. This is what we’ve all been waiting for. I think I found some polite way to say: Carol, I am one hell of a busy man. I don’t have time to go camping. Besides which, the whole point of our work at the Coalition on Homelessness is that sleeping on urban streets sucks, and no one should have to do it. Doing this on purpose in October is stu– counterintuitive. Continue reading →

Posted in Actions, Civil & Human Rights, Federal Government, Organizing, Urban Homelessness, WRAP Members | Leave a comment

Village Ribbon Cutting!

Posted on October 31, 2011 by WRAP Comms

Thank you to everyone who attended the Village Playground Ribbon Cutting, and shared this wonderful celebration with BOSS! The new playground owes its existence to the generosity and commitment of dozens of partners—its creation was a true collaboration and a labor of love.

On the breezy and cool evening of Monday October 24^th, the sound of kids playing, adults talking, and train whistles blowing on the tracks behind Ursula Sherman Village mingled as the community gathered to officially open a big and wonderful present: the new Village playground! See more ribbon. Continue reading →

Posted in BOSS Blog, Events, Family Homelessness, Organizing, Poverty, Urban Homelessness, WRAP Members | Leave a comment

WRAP Member Spotlight: Nonprofit Right 2 Dream Too sets up homeless camp in Old Town-Chinatown neighborhood

Posted on October 31, 2011 by WRAP Comms

When he walks on Portland’s streets, Ibrahim Mubarak’s heart aches for the homeless people trying to live and sleep without shelter.

It’s a sight he’s used to witnessing, but recently, Mubarak decided to offer a solution: Create a homeless camp on private property where homeless people can come to get a good night’s sleep. Continue reading →

Posted in Advocacy, Affordable Housing, Civil & Human Rights, Organizing, Poverty, Street Roots Blog, Urban Homelessness, WRAP Members | Leave a comment

Mental health and criminal justice: Penny wise and definitely foolish

Posted on October 20, 2011 by WRAP Comms

By Chris O’Connor, Contributing Writer

As an attorney working solely in indigent defense, I often see the terrible collision of mental health and the criminal justice system. Some of those in government and policy positions need to come down to the courthouse and see the unfortunate mess that results when the criminal justice system tries to deal with what ultimately is a medical problem. Continue reading →

Posted in Advocacy, Civil & Human Rights, Poverty, Street Roots Blog, Urban Homelessness | Leave a comment

World Homeless Action Day – Oct. 10th @ 5 pm, Civic Center, SF

Posted on October 7, 2011 by WRAP Comms

World Homeless Action Day
Rally, March and Citywide Open Housing Occupations
October 10th, 2011, 5:00 pm
Civic Center (Larkin & Fulton Streets) San Francisco

Squatters’ collective, Homes Not Jails, convenes at Civic Center on World Homeless Action Day to rally, take to the streets, and occupy over 10 vacant buildings consisting of more than 700 housing units. Homes Not Jails is taking Direct Action on October 10th, by staging multiple public “open occupations” of vacant residential housing in neighborhoods throughout San Francisco. Hundreds of homeless individuals, community leaders, activists, immigrant community members, children, families, social workers, squatters, students, educators, and San Franciscans of all stripes will gather this Monday at 5pm in Civic Center. Continue reading →