Join Affordable Homeless Housing Alternatives and the Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP-www.wraphome.org) at a public forum about the California Homeless Bill of Rights and Right to Rest legislation, Saturday, Nov. 5, at 3pm. The public forum and discussion on proposed California Legislation for a Homeless Bill of Rights next year will be presented at the Labor Union Hall 840 E Street, Eureka,.
Other California communities have ordinances like Eureka’s no-camping ordinance that, when enforced, routinely criminalize homelessness. In Eureka there are far too few shelter beds for those in need. With no other choice than to rest, sleep, eat and perform other life-sustaining activities in public spaces, people who are homeless are often cited and fined or even arrested and jailed. Police records then make it harder for people to gain employment and housing.
Paul Boden, Director of WRAP will talk about how the California Homeless Bill of Rights and Right to Rest legislation can eliminate criminalization, which the U.S. Justice Department is calling unconstitutional and “cruel and unusual punishment.” (www.wraphome.org).
AHHA invites the public to join them at the Labor Union Hall, where Paul will be a featured speaker and talk about how to move affordable housing forward. AHHA and folks living rough in Eureka will outline the current situation of residents who have no legal place to be in Eureka, and their proposals for sanctuary camp to tiny house villages as solutions.
The new AHHA Campaign for funding Tiny Houses for homeless in Villages will be announced, and a kick-off to raise $100,000 to secure property and manifest Eureka’s first Tiny House Village. More information on the AHHA Campaign for Land and Villages in Humboldt County is available at www.ahha-humco.org. This Campaign will create good looking villages for folks now living in the rain, and solve the community problem of folks only option of roaming and living on the streets.
This important Forum for Humboldt County can make a difference by creating spaces that are safe, warm, and dry first!, until affordable housing is created. And, AHHA will announce a solution the community can participate in to bring folks out of the rain and off the streets through development of sanctuaries to tiny house villages.
Paul Boden (Executive and Organizing Director) became homeless at the age of 16. He began volunteering at a drop-in shelter in San Francisco in 1983, eventually becoming a program director there and worked as a case manager in a supportive hotel program for mentally ill people. Paul served as Executive Director of San Francisco’s Coalition on Homelessness for 16 years and was a founder of the Community Housing Partnership, a nationally recognized permanent housing corporation with optional supportive services. Paul was also a board member of the National Coalition for the Homeless and co-chair of its civil rights and grassroots organizing workgroup. He has received dozens of community city/ county of San Francisco, State of California, and the Congress of the United States awards. Paul regularly writes articles and op-eds and travels throughout the country giving talks and trainings. He now leads the Homeless Bill of Rights Campaign in California, Colorado, and Oregon www.wraphome.org
For further information, contact Nezzie Wade 267-4035, now1@suddenlink.net
