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WRAP

WRAP

Western Regional Advocacy Project

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Videos

Why did we create WRAP? Because homelessness isn’t rocket science

 

The beginning of WRAP – why we do what we do

 

Finding the common threads in our communities

 

WRAP’s philosophy of the importance of street outreach

 

The nitty gritty of accountable community organizing

 

Without Housing!

 

WRAP’s Without Housing Report – Why it’s Important

 

Find the money and you will find the priorities

 

The Homeless Bill of Rights and the Right to Rest as organizing

 

Fighting Criminalization with the Right to Rest Act

 

BID take-overs of our downtowns – here how it works

 

“Reagan’s wet dream of neoliberalism”: The roots of San Francisco’s homelessness crisis

 

San Francisco Press Conference: Homeless Exclusion Districts 

San Francisco Press Conference: Homeless Exclusion Districts Saint Mary’s Locking Arms for Civil Rights

Los Angeles Press Conference: Homeless Exclusion Districts

Posted by LA CAN (Los Angeles Community Action Network) on Tuesday, September 18, 2018

Sacramento Press Conference: Homeless Exclusion Districts



Denver Press Conference: Homeless Exclusion Districts



Portland Press Conference: Homeless Exclusion Districts

Portland Press Conference: Homeless Exclusion Districts

THE POLICY ADVOCACY CLINIC AT UC BERKELEY SCHOOL OF LAW RELEASES CALIFORNIA BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICTS REPORT..HOMELESS EXCLUSION DISTRICTS The Policy Advocacy Clinic at UC Berkeley School of Law conducted a study for the Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP) to understand the effects Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) have on houseless communities in California.Patrolling and controlling our public spaces, sidewalks, streets, and parks, Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) are privatizing our downtowns and main thoroughfares. Our public spaces are becoming corridors and shopping centers that are welcoming consumers with open arms and excluding everyone else. Most particularly impacted by this emerging trend are the houseless communities that see areas to rest and sleep, free from harassment and criminalization, shrinking.A BID is a special, legal subdivision of the city, with the legal authority to create their own districts, effectively claiming ownership over neighborhoods. The city collects assessments (taxes) from property owners, including city property and public spaces within the district, and then distributes that money to the BID. The BIDs can use those funds however they see fit to serve businesses within the district with little to no public oversight.This study “Homeless Exclusion Districts: How California Business Improvement Districts Use Policy Advocacy and Policing Practices to Exclude Homeless People from Public Space,” is the first of its kind and contains groundbreaking research on how BIDs impacts our local communities and reflect the impacts of BIDs across the country. The report analyses the several ways in which current BID policy and policing practices violate California law and infringe on the legal rights of homeless people. The UC BerkeleyLaw Policy Advocacy Clinic surveyed approximately 189 BIDS in 69 of California’s largest cities to study the relationship between BIDs and houseless people. Clinic student Shelby Nacino states “Our research shows that BIDs have been successful in pressing state and local lawmakers to criminalize homelessness. The growing number of BIDs since the legislature gave them greater authority and autonomy in 1994 correlates strongly with a striking increase in anti-homeless laws.”The study found that “BIDs violate California law when they spend property assessment revenue on policy advocacy… BIDs may violate additional state laws when they spend assessment revenue collected from public properties within their districts on policy advocacy… BIDs and their agents may violate state, federal, and international law through their policing practices, including the infringing on the legal rights of homeless people.”BIDs have been at the forefront of the criminalization of homelessness, gentrification, and displacement of poor people across the country. In the Bay Area, we see and experience the backlash of BIDs’ influence on public policy, privatization of public spaces and policing every day. Unfortunately, the repercussions of BIDs are visible not just in the Bay Area. Benjamin Dunning from Denver Homeless Out Loud stated that business districts in Denver started to take sections of sidewalk away. “This was public space, and they were offering it up to private business… The business improvement district made environmental changes to make it more difficult for homeless people to exist in that area.” BIDs are privatizing public space across the country and with privatization comes policing, criminalization and displacement of the houseless, buskers, street vendors and the local poor.“BIDs will go Block by Block to ensure that every sidewalk, street, and park serve to benefit the businesses that are in the district. Public Space has become nothing more than the hallways of a shopping mall and if you are in that hallways you better be there to shop, or someone might chase you out.” says Paul Boden of WRAP.With the release of this study “Homeless Exclusion Districts: How California Business Improvement Districts Use Policy Advocacy and Policing Practices to Exclude Homeless People from Public Space,” we hope to bring greater awareness to how our shiny new shopping spaces are created, and what goes into their creation–mainly our tax dollars and our freedom.

Posted by Homeless Bill of Rights Oregon on Wednesday, September 26, 2018

WRAP “Broken Windows Break Lives” Panel. San Francisco

 

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Welcome to the WRAP-UP! Boise, ID. Video Shows Fam Welcome to the WRAP-UP!	Boise, ID. Video Shows Family Violently Arrested and Severely Injured for Living in Park, and more news from our members.  https://conta.cc/3R8Efzl
https://conta.cc/3r3rHhU
Washington D.C. PRESS RELEASE: Congresswoman Bush Washington D.C. PRESS RELEASE: Congresswoman Bush Re-Introduces Unhoused Bill of Rights https://wraphome.org/
After nearly 30 years of continuous publication, w After nearly 30 years of continuous publication, we have lost our funding. Street Spirit ceased publication on July 1, but we will not give up! Our newspaper is an invaluable source of East Bay news, and a vital resource for the people who sell it. Come party with us to support our effort to relaunch. https://conta.cc/3rifOod
WRAP is Hiring - Member Organizer WRAP was founde WRAP is Hiring - Member Organizer 
WRAP was founded in 2005 by local social justice organizations across the West to bring about real systemic change. We are building a multi-issue, multi-racial and social justice-based coalition which brings organizations together across the local–national divide, thus giving us the strength and experience to make ending poverty and homelessness a national priority. https://conta.cc/3XD5QK9
Celebrating Resistance Relationships June 30, 202 Celebrating Resistance Relationships 
June 30, 2023 * 6:00 - 8:00 pm 
320 West 37th Street, New York, NY 10018
State of the “Sweeps” The politics of encampme State of the “Sweeps”
The politics of encampments and displacement in the “post” pandemic order
Public panel discussion, June 14, 4-5:30pm Communications 120
University of Washington, Seattle
Undercommons Archives Art Show Thursday June 15th Undercommons Archives Art Show
Thursday June 15th 7-10pm 
Adobe Books 3130 24th St. SF
Instagram post 17863401230948820 Instagram post 17863401230948820
San Francisco, CA. Mayor’s Plan to Expand Shelte San Francisco, CA. Mayor’s Plan to Expand Shelter GUTS HOUSING FOR HOMELESS FAMILIES AND YOUTH 
https://wraphome.org/2023/05/31/mayors-plan-to-expand-shelter-guts-housing-for-homeless-families-and-youth/
Nationally, evictions from public housing have sur Nationally, evictions from public housing have surged since late 2021, when the federal government lifted an eviction moratorium put in place to protect renters during the pandemic, according to Peter Hepburn, associate director of Princeton University’s Eviction Lab.  https://conta.cc/3WJco9B
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4 days ago
Mark your calendar: Homeless Advisory Meeting Friday September 22nd
If you are houseless or have been houseless or are on the edge of being houseless come to this meeting and speak up! 
If you are housed and can come listen and support please do too! If you can help provide rides to houseless people to this meeting please let us know. 
Friday September 22nd 11am-2pm 
at 20th Street Rec Center (1011 20th Street) 
There will be lunch.
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