• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
WRAP

WRAP

Western Regional Advocacy Project

  • Donate Now
  • Get Email Updates
  • Contact Us
  • Home
  • About
    • 40 Years of Fighting
    • History
    • Mission
    • Strategy
    • Members
    • Board / Staff
  • Campaigns
    • Business Improvement Districts
    • House Keys Not Sweeps
    • Homeless Bill of Rights
    • Oregon Right To Rest
    • Without Housing
    • Street Outreach
  • Organizing Tools
    • Without Housing Organizing Toolkit
    • Homeless Bill of Rights Campaign Manual
    • WRAP Organizers Manual
    • WRAP Artwork
  • Resources
    • Pipe Dreams and Picket Fences Report
    • Art in Action Power Point Slide Show
    • Hobos to Street People
    • House Keys Book
    • Political Education
    • Legal Research
  • Media
    • Newsletters
    • Blog
    • Hobos to Street People Art Show
    • Street Newspapers
    • Sweeps Gallery Videos
    • Videos
  • Support Us
    • Donate
    • Become a Monthly Sustainer
    • Volunteer
    • Support WRAP
    • WRAP Newsletters & Updates Sign Up

House Keys Not Sweeps

September 18, 2020 by Jonathan Leave a Comment

House Keys Not Sweeps

10 Cities Join Forces to Defend OUR Humanity!!

WRAP’s House Keys Not Sweeps campaign is underway. Can you help us reach our goal of $15,000 with a generous gift today? We can’t do all the work we do to fight for the basic, human rights of people experiencing poverty and homelessness without all of our community coming together. THANK YOU for all the ways you support this work!

We know things are difficult on so many fronts right now, from the pandemic to wildfires, floods to tear gas, sweeps to police brutality. These issues affect us all, in different ways. Even in the midst of all this, local governments and private security patrols continue the violent tactics of sweeping people’s homes, stealing people’s belongings, and criminalizing the presence of our community members. Our fight on this front continues now as always…

The goal of our House Keys Not Sweeps campaign is to bring an END to the inhumane, dehumanizing sweeps that the police, public works departments, and contracted security and cleanup crews inflict on our community members.

During the first few months of the Covid-19 pandemic, some US cities temporarily stopped sweeping—evicting—people with nowhere else to go. For many, this was their first respite from the constant trauma of displacement in years. Mutual aid groups were born and strengthened, neighbors shared food and water with neighbors, and people organized all kinds of other supports. In short, people momentarily were able to take care of each other in the ways we always do—but without the never-ending threat of eviction.

Yet, with no end to the pandemic in sight and the threat of 30-40 million more people becoming homeless in the months to come, cities have gone back to their old ways. They are once again confiscating people’s survival gear, wheelchairs, food, medicines, treasured photos, and other personal possessions with impunity.

It will come as no surprise that WRAP members are not sitting still! In fact, we are doubling down on our efforts. WRAP members have partnered with groups in TEN cities across the US to lead a NATIONAL campaign to Stop the Sweeps of our community members. Our groups are continuing to provide mutual aid, orchestrate direct actions, lead legislative campaigns, develop grassroots legal support, and join forces with abolitionist groups to END the criminalization of poverty and homelessness.

In the months to come, WRAP has bold plans to create citation defense legal clinics in all of our cities, to support the ongoing local organizing and protect people from criminalization. We also will continue our research on the role of Business Improvement Districts in criminalizing homelessness, collaborate with organizations working to defund the police, connect with national campaigns to decommodify housing, and continue to create powerful artwork. As always, this work is entirely grounded in the leadership of local, accountable organizing groups, who are on the frontlines of the fight for systemic change: people in the streets, parks, and encampments who are daily facing the dehumanization of homelessness—and who are fighting for a more just world.

Please donate today and join us in the fight for justice to come!
We are honored to be in this struggle with you all.
We can’t do it without you.
Thank you!

Filed Under: Blog, Call to Action, WRAP Staff

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Footer

Instagram Feed

FOR MORE INFORMARTION VISIT US AT: http://wraphome FOR MORE INFORMARTION VISIT US AT: http://wraphome.org/developmentdirector
WRAP is hiring a full-time Development Director with at least 2 years of non-profit fundraising management experience. WRAP supports our core members, allies, and others by providing organizing tools and research for each to use in their campaigns fighting the criminalization of houselessness and for affordable housing. We are helping to build a regional /national movement �together and strengthen �connections of WRAP’s priorities with broader anti- racism, classism, neo-liberal capitalism, and criminalization campaigns.
Register here tinyurl.com/Mumia-film for Thursday Register here tinyurl.com/Mumia-film for Thursday night’s online screening of this moving, informative, personal, important, and artfully-made film. Cast includes Cornel West, Angela Davis, Dick Gregory, Alice Walker, Ruben ‘Hurricane’ Carter, and Amy Goodman.
Forty years ago, the federal government slashed af Forty years ago, the federal government slashed affordable housing budgets of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), marking the beginning of the contemporary crisis of homelessness. https://conta.cc/3k4mDpA
Theatre of the POOR presents CRUSHING WHEELCHAIRS Theatre of the POOR presents CRUSHING WHEELCHAIRS 
Sunday 2/12/23 4pm San Francisco 2948 16th St.
Sunday 2/26/23 4pm Oakland 1540 Broadway 
For more information poormag@gmail.com
One of the questions we asked people we love about One of the questions we asked people we love about this continuing forty-year process of addressing the root causes of homelessness in America was recognizing that our comrade Paul has also been fighting this neoliberal bullshit for forty years. In earlier emails people spoke about the importance of WRAP. Here is what some of our friends had to say about Paul’s role over the last forty years. https://conta.cc/3vbUnUx
Next Thursday, the 22nd, at 11am we are having a p Next Thursday, the 22nd, at 11am we are having a press conference as the preliminary hearings begin and need all our allies to show up and call for justice! https://conta.cc/3FyNtgH
A lot of work done addressing oppressions across t A lot of work done addressing oppressions across the country takes place in courtrooms and legislative bodies. This work is not always successful due to the fact that the oppressors are the ones making the laws. But we know you can’t fight a system if you don’t know the ins and outs of how that system works.  https://conta.cc/3VQrVDl
Join the next Public Works Committee Meeting to re Join the next Public Works Committee Meeting to reject the “safe work zone” ordinance that aims to further criminalize unhoused people and their advocates during sweeps.
Monday, 12/12 at 10:30am
bit.ly/oakmtg-1212
Let's Celebrate Chucho Let's Celebrate Chucho
We are raising $40,000 for WRAP’s vital work at We are raising $40,000 for WRAP’s vital work at this 40-year mark, and all donations will be matched up to $20,000 in November and December! Contribute $40, $400, $4,000 to help make sure that mass homelessness is not around another 40 years. https://conta.cc/3VAWHQ8
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Facebook Icon

Facebook Feed

Comments Box SVG iconsUsed for the like, share, comment, and reaction icons
Link thumbnail

Denver, CO. Evaluating Mayoral Candidates’ Houselessness Plans Based on Houseless People’s Priorities - WRAP

wraphome.org

Housekeys Action Network Denver recently released our housing report “Pipe Dreams and Picket Fences”, detailing the findings from our su...
8 hours ago
View on Facebook
· Share
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
View Comments
  • Likes: 0
  • Shares: 0
  • Comments: 0

Comment on Facebook

Twitter Icon

Twitter Feed

Unable to load Tweets

Follow

YouTube icon

Youtube Code

Our Channel

Copyright © 2023 Western Regional Advocacy Project WRAP · Log in