There is no WRAP without our members and there is no WRAP without our support system.

Dear WRAP Community,

We are sending love out to our community and everyone we work with at this time. We are devastated by the fascist, racist violence impacting communities all over the world and here at home. May our work together for justice succeed and the violence end.

It is that time of year when we send a letter to say thank you for all you do and for your support and to ask you to please continue that support if you are able. We truly can’t be WRAP and do all that we do, without you – our uplifting, inspirational, amazing supporters. We know everyone gives what and how they can. Thank you! If you have already donated – Thank you too!

Everything goes back to why we were founded.

As you likely know, 19 years ago WRAP was created to uplift the voices and experiences of local communities, especially people on the street, to shift the narrative away from treating a massive systemic failure by “treating” individuals to addressing injustice at its roots and core by listening to the people who are most impacted – those who are ass-out and who the current heartless system has flat out failed.

Then and now, we challenge the common, immoral belief that is ok to make basic human needs a commodity – only meeting the needs of those who can pay.

Almost all mainstream “research” and “solutions” as well as the entire system to “address homelessness” looks at individuals – probing and questioning – even though we all know the roots of homelessness are built into the vicious system of racialized capitalism we all live under. Homelessness is systemic. It is not in people’s DNA. WRAP fights for systemic solutions and for justice for all people.

The founding members created WRAP to amplify this human rights perspective. And this is who our members are today – groups that will amplify the systemic injustice and systemic inevitability of mass homelessness in the current system and fight for the vision of a society where housing, health care, and education are a human right for every person.

Every single thing that we do and have done for 19 years connects back to what people who are houseless have told us is important to them and what WRAP members are hearing from the people they work with every day in each of their communities.

We were grounded in addressing this shit, saying the important things we were not hearing too many others say, and that is still what we are doing today. We haven’t wavered one bit. We’ve kept our focus and our spirit!

A big reason we can do all of this is because of our donors.

Thanks to you all – we have never had to waver from what we were created to do in the first place. There is no WRAP without our members and there is no WRAP without our support system. We are grateful for your support of our human rights work. Please give a generous donation today to continue to support the vital work of WRAP. Until we have worked ourselves out of a job and every single person has all of their human rights and human needs met every day. This is possible. Thank you for supporting our work!

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Peace,

Paul Boden
Executive Director

P.S. All donations in November and December will be matched up to $10,000 by a pool of generous donors. Consider becoming a monthly or quarterly donor to support the work of WRAP with a steady gift of any size. Thank you!

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Some things we accomplished in 2023!

• We created the Legal Defense Clinic (LDC) Roadmap to support groups on the ground who want to combine legal defense with legal action against criminalization. We presented our LDC Roadmap at a national conference in October.
• We supported our member House Keys Action Network Denver (HAND) with the research, writing and dissemination of “Pipe Dreams and Picket Fences: Direction from Denver’s Houseless People on Housing Needs and Priorities in the Context of Today’s Public Housing”
• An interview with Paul Boden (our director and founder) on 40 years of modern homelessness in The Guardian was in the top 10 most-read articles for two weeks!
• We brought together groups working across the country for the human right to housing and an end to the sweeps in their communities on monthly calls to learn from each other, and share resources and strategies.
• We shared all organizing resources we have with anyone who asked and gave away (de-commodified) our radical organizing artwork in the form of posters and t-shirts so that everyone has access.

Some things we will do in 2024:

• We will continue to support all of the above and we will…
• Create and support a Legal Defense Clinic “task force” to support groups across the country who want to use our handbook to implement LDC’s in their communities as they  support class-action lawsuits against sweeps and more
• Deepen our work for federal affordable housing policy accountability, supporting Congresswoman Cori Bush and others who are working on a national human right to housing and an end to the immoral practice of criminalizing homelessness and houseless people
• We will continue to write and fight and share organizing resources with everyone with your support!

Thank you for your generous support of WRAP’s important work!