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WRAP

WRAP

Western Regional Advocacy Project

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California Right To Rest

california

History

The California Statewide Homeless Bill of Rights Campaign is one part of 3 statewide campaigns in California, Colorado and Oregon. The Homeless Bill of Rights is a grassroots organizing campaign fighting to end the criminalization of poor and homeless people’s existence. The campaign strives to ensure that all people have the basic right to live where they choose without fear of harassment and criminalization at the hands of the police. This campaign is a way of working collectively with groups possessing different talents to address the many injustices that we face in our communities. We are building the power to create a social justice movement that will create a society where we can all thrive.

2018 Legislation

  • Right To Rest Act Legislation

 Campaign Materials

  • California Street Outreach Fact Sheet
  • National Street Outreach Fact Sheet
  • Historical Criminalization Fact Sheet 
  • California’s New Vagrancy Laws The Growing Enactment and Enforcement of Anti-Homeless Laws in the Golden State Fact Sheet
  • Count of Anti-Homeless Laws by California City (All 82 Cities)
  • Count of Anti-Homeless Laws Prohibiting Sleeping in Vehicles by California City (All 82 Cities)

Research

Updated and expanded – June 2016 California’s New Vagrancy Laws The Growing Enactment and Enforcement of Anti-Homeless Laws in the Golden State

June 2016, the Policy Advocacy Clinic at the University of California, Berkeley released an update on previous research report entitled “California’s New Vagrancy Laws: The Growing Enactment and Enforcement of Anti-Homeless Laws in the Golden State.” The study documents the increasing criminalization of homeless people in California through local laws mimicking shameful vagrancy laws of past eras that targeted people of color, migrants, and people with disabilities. Clinic students from the law school and the school of public policy analyzed municipal codes in 58 California cities, where three-quarters of California’s homeless people reside. They also gathered public records and interviewed key stakeholders in a sample of cities to study enforcement practices across the state.

Punishing the Poorest – How the Criminalization of Homelessness Perpetuates Poverty in San Francisco

“I have to hide like a dog at night.”
—Oscar, homeless in San Francisco
This report details the effects of criminalization on the homeless residents of San Francisco. Since 1981, San Francisco has passed more local measures to criminalize sleeping, sitting, or panhandling in public spaces than any other city in the state of California. During this same period, the United States has experienced the greatest expansion members of this society. This report documents and analyzes the impacts of the rising tide of anti-homeless laws in our era of mass incarceration on those experiencing homelessness in San Francisco.

California WRAP Members 

  • Coalition On Homelessness San Francisco  
  • Los Angeles Community Action Network 
  • Sacramento Homeless Organizing Committee 
  • St. Mary’s Center Oakland

Endorsers

  • Organizational Endorsement Form pdf 

Get Involved with the Campaign

The best way to get involved with the California Statewide Homeless Bill of Rights Campaign is to get in touch with one of the WRAP core members to find out about working on the local level to push for change on the state level.

Some other ways to get involved:

  • Invite California organizers to come to your community and hold a forum to talk about criminalization and the Homeless Bill of Rights campaign.
  • Participate in WRAP’s street outreach to people on the streets in your neighborhood to hear their experiences and build a collective voice around criminalization.
  • Provide connections with universities who want to do research on criminalization or others who want to support moving anti-criminalization legislation.

If you have questions about the campaign you can write to us or call us:

wrap@wraphome.org
(415) 621-2533

Social Media 

  • California Homeless Bill of Rights 

Artwork

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social-media-factoid-california-sleeping-in-vehicles-laws
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social-media-factoid-hhastags
a-hazelwood-push-back
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priorities

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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
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Republican plan would outlaw homeless camps near California schools or parks

www.ijpr.org

Sacramento, Elk Grove and Los Angeles passed similar encampment bans last year, despite opposition from advocates who say they harm unhoused...
9 hours ago
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