WRAP | House Keys Book

House Keys Book

It is our pleasure and honor to present House Keys Not Handcuffs: Homeless Organizing, Art and Politics in
San Francisco and Beyond.

hkb1 This book is written by WRAP’s executive director Paul Boden, and includes additional essays by friends and longtime allies, Art Hazelwood and Bob Prentice.

House Keys Not Handcuffs is a reflection on over 30 years of homeless organizing in San Francisco. It is an attempt to sort out what went well and what did not as a community begins to organize in order to hold public and private institutions accountable. Its purpose is not only to distill the lessons we have learned, but to encourage others to document and reflect on their own experiences in the hope that we can collectively contribute to a stronger, more broadly-based movement. Artwork has been a vital part of this organizing and a wide range of images, from cartoons to murals and street posters are highlighted.

The book draws from the insights of Paul Boden, whose own experiences on the street, as an activist, and as a co-founder both of the Coalition on Homelessness and later, the Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP) give him a unique and wide perspective. It is a voice for people who have no power or privilege except for their capacity to organize and demand social justice.

Homelessness is a visible manifestation of a society that is lacking in justice. We offer House Keys Not Handcuffs in the hope that it will help re-invigorate a social justice movement in this country that respects all of us as human beings and ensures that all people have a right to exist and a place to live as basic human rights.

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House Keys Not Handcuffs:

Homeless Organizing, Art and Politics in San Francisco and Beyond.

By Paul Boden, with additional essays by Art Hazelwood and Bob Prentice.

Artwork by Francisco Dominguez, Ronnie Goodman, Ed Gould, Christine Hanlon, Art Hazelwood, Tom McCarthy, Malcolm McClay, Eliza Factor, Doug Minkler, Maxx Newman, Jos Sances, Tony Taliaferro, Jane “in Vain” Winkelman, Nili Yosha, San Francisco Print Collective, and others.

Published by Freedom Voices, San Francisco, CA, 108 pages, 67 images, 8.5 x 8.5 trade paper, ISBN 9780915117246, $30.00

Released: November 2014

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About the Author and Co-Authors

hkb3 Paul Boden, Executive and Organizing Director of the Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP), became homeless at the age of 16. He served as Executive Director of San Francisco’s Coalition on Homelessness for 17 years and was a founder of the Community Housing Partnership, a nationally recognized permanent housing corporation. He has received dozens of community awards during the last thirty years and recognition from the city of San Francisco, the State of California, and the Congress of the United States. Paul regularly writes articles and op-eds and travels throughout the country giving talks and trainings

About the Co-Authors

We Won’t Be Made Invisible: Art of Homeless Activism by Art Hazelwood documents the growing influence of art in homeless community organizing. The artwork in this book highlights a wide range of approaches to the struggle from cartoons to street posters. As artist and activist, Art has contributed work to the Coalition on Homelessness since 1994 and been “Minister of Culture” for WRAP since its inception. Author and curator of Hobos to Street People: Artists’ Responses to Homelessness from the New Deal to the Present, which chronicles the ways in which art became an integral part of organizing culture and strategy.

Homeless Organizing and City Policy by Bob Prentice considers the ways in which homeless activism has influenced public policies over the last three decades. Bob was director of homeless programs for the San Francisco Department of Public Health during the first decade covered in House Keys, Not Handcuffs, with lead responsibility for city homeless policy and lead author of Beyond Shelter: A Homeless Plan for San Francisco during the administration of Mayor Art Agnos.

Proceeds from this book will benefit WRAP and support its community organizing efforts.

You can get a copy for a $30 donation! Or four copies for a $100 donation ($20 discount).

From Hospitality House - A Statement of Solidarity

First and foremost, the entire Hospitality House family extends its heartfelt condolences to the friends and families of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and so many, many others killed by the pandemic of racism. Communities of color bear much of the pain and unimaginable loss – but like most pandemics, all of us are at risk of the virus of racism.

However, all of us are not victimized or brutalized or disadvantaged equally. By our economic system. By our education system. By our healthcare system. By our political system – 45 Presidents, ONE black male, NO women. By our financial system – to participate in a capitalist system one needs capital. And without question, by our justice system. We can save the debate for another time whether or not class or race is the real disease.

If we’ve learned nothing else, this much is clear: ALL LIVES ARE NOT EQUAL.

None of our lives are diminished by that acknowledgement, nor does it value some lives more than others. Failure to acknowledge it, however, DEVALUES some lives more than others. Which is why hard and brutally honest dialogue about the pandemic of racism - the cruelty of it, the trauma of it, the lives and communities indelibly damaged by it, the violence of it – is needed NOW more than ever.

Undoubtedly, progress on this defining issue of our time is compromised by pathologically dysfunctional leadership. It’s up to each of us to summon up all that we are, and can hope to be, now, in this moment.

Hospitality House will not judge those protesters whose actions – as covered by network news - may or may not reflect the best of humanity in this moment. Anger is rarely rational; but anger may well be necessary before healing is possible.

Hospitality House IS PROUD to stand in solidarity with the Movement for Black Lives, The Coalition of Asian American Leaders, MN Freedom Fund, Young Women’s Freedom Center, Chinese Progressive Association, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, The Color of Change - these and so many other intergenerational champions engaged in the ongoing struggle for racial and economic justice.

We at Hospitality House grieve for the families scarred and ripped apart by the scourge of racial injustice, and the pandemic of racial violence. In the words of a former journalist, “Racism is more than simply a stain on the fabric of America – racism IS the fabric of America.”

To all those racial justice warriors committed to a better country, to a better global community, to a better, safer future for their children and their children’s children – this week’s events clearly show that the struggle is now where it has always been: on the street where we live.

All of us at Hospitality House salute you, we are grateful for you, and our hearts ache with you.

America, the world is watching.

-Joe Wilson
Executive Director
Hospitality House ... See MoreSee Less

1 day ago

From Hospitality House SF - A Statement of Solidarity

First and foremost, the entire Hospitality House family extends its heartfelt condolences to the friends and families of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and so many, many others killed by the pandemic of racism. Communities of color bear much of the pain and unimaginable loss – but like most pandemics, all of us are at risk of the virus of racism.

However, all of us are not victimized or brutalized or disadvantaged equally. By our economic system. By our education system. By our healthcare system. By our political system – 45 Presidents, ONE black male, NO women. By our financial system – to participate in a capitalist system one needs capital. And without question, by our justice system. We can save the debate for another time whether or not class or race is the real disease.

If we’ve learned nothing else, this much is clear: ALL LIVES ARE NOT EQUAL.

None of our lives are diminished by that acknowledgement, nor does it value some lives more than others. Failure to acknowledge it, however, DEVALUES some lives more than others. Which is why hard and brutally honest dialogue about the pandemic of racism - the cruelty of it, the trauma of it, the lives and communities indelibly damaged by it, the violence of it – is needed NOW more than ever.

Undoubtedly, progress on this defining issue of our time is compromised by pathologically dysfunctional leadership. It’s up to each of us to summon up all that we are, and can hope to be, now, in this moment.

Hospitality House will not judge those protesters whose actions – as covered by network news - may or may not reflect the best of humanity in this moment. Anger is rarely rational; but anger may well be necessary before healing is possible.

Hospitality House IS PROUD to stand in solidarity with the Movement for Black Lives, The Coalition of Asian American Leaders, MN Freedom Fund, Young Women’s Freedom Center, Chinese Progressive Association, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, The Color of Change - these and so many other intergenerational champions engaged in the ongoing struggle for racial and economic justice.

We at Hospitality House grieve for the families scarred and ripped apart by the scourge of racial injustice, and the pandemic of racial violence. In the words of a former journalist, “Racism is more than simply a stain on the fabric of America – racism IS the fabric of America.”

To all those racial justice warriors committed to a better country, to a better global community, to a better, safer future for their children and their children’s children – this week’s events clearly show that the struggle is now where it has always been: on the street where we live.

All of us at Hospitality House salute you, we are grateful for you, and our hearts ache with you.

America, the world is watching.

-Joe Wilson
Executive Director
Hospitality House

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House Keys Book

It is our pleasure and honor to present House Keys Not Handcuffs: Homeless Organizing, Art and Politics in San Francisco and Beyond.

It is our pleasure and honor to present House Keys Not Handcuffs: Homeless Organizing, Art and Politics in
San Francisco and Beyond.