Hey Everyone!

Please don't forget we have a 1:1 match for the rest of December thanks to some very generous donors. Your $10 gift will become $20, $100 = $200, and so on - up to $15,000! If you've already donated for the match - thank you - we can't do what we do without you - it's really, really important and we appreciate it and you.

If everyone on this email list who is grateful for the human rights work of WRAP gave $25 today, we would have enough money to get through 2018. Just $25 each! Can you donate $25 today? It will really help- thank you!

We only have $3,000 left to raise to meet our goal for the campaign- we can do it - thank you for helping!

2017 was a really weird and awful year in many ways. Sometimes the best thing you can say about a year is the damn things over! And, of course, many good things continued to happen - the Poor People's Campaign, the #MeToo movement and much more. WRAP never stopped kicking some ass for the good! As usual, we have been very busy fighting for human rights and helping build powerful movements to fight the insanity and build a world that we would all build if we had our druthers. We wanted to share some of WRAP's work in 2017 here - thank you for supporting it!

Some great news - WRAP was integral in helping to pass groundbreaking legislation to reduce recidivism and honor the dignity of transgender prisoners. For the first time in California history, legislation written by currently and formerly incarcerated transgender people was signed into law.

Senate Bill 310, the Name and Dignity Act, makes it possible for transgender people currently in custody to petition the superior court for a legal name and gender marker change. This legislation allows transgender people to have their chosen names respected while incarcerated and eases the re-entry process for transgender people by ensuring that they have legal documents that match their gender presentation upon release. This breaks down barriers in accessing housing, employment and healthcare. This bill was co-sponsored by the Transgender Gendervariant Intersex Justice Project, the St. James Infirmary, the Western Regional Advocacy Project, the Transgender Law Center, the Women's Foundation of California and Equality California. Read more on this here.

With all the potential devastating damage in Trump's Proposed 2018 budget - These massive cuts to housing and community programs are not generating the kind of media attention needed to fend off some seriously nasty stuff. Behind all the tweets, lies, hearings and overall bizarre neo-liberal dictator behavior is a seriously massive increase in homelessness, poverty and gentrification. WRAP produced this fact sheet to provide a historical understanding of how proposed HUD budget cuts of 2018 have a direct link to a 38-year-cycle of draconian cuts to our nation's affordable housing programs.

WRAP, in conjunction with the Poster Syndicate San Francisco, also created this powerful artwork to support our organizing against these devastating cuts. In August, WRAP members and allies took to the Federal Building in San Francisco for a direct action to protest these heinous cuts to housing and human services.

In December, WRAP groups provided leadership hosting packed town halls offering testimony on poverty and human rights abuses in the U.S. for visitors from the United Nations (UN). The UN Special Rapporteur on Poverty and Human Rights visited San Francisco and Los Angeles and WRAP member groups were there to make sure they heard, through testimony and street outreach, about the systemic violence against our communities as well as the movements we are building to say "no" to this violence. WRAP's powerful artwork, research, street outreach and documentation enhanced the testimonies. Here is a great article on this work from the Guardian - just in time for the passage of an insane tax bill that fleeces the poor and hands it over to the (temporarily) ruling class. WRAP could not be any more important than now!

WRAP has been active and busy challenging unjust laws and actions using courthouses and court rooms. WRAP provided support in 2017 core member Denver Homeless Out Loud as they filed a class action lawsuit against the City of Denver showing how sweeps and taking of protective gear, in freezing weather, is cruel and unusual punishment as well as a human rights violation.  To learn more and stay up-to-date on this important, groundbreaking lawsuit, sign up here

WRAP is also the lead organizational plaintiff in a Bay Area lawsuit against the police practice of seizure and destruction of personal property of people who are homeless. At the request of communities in Northern California, WRAP filed a complaint with the California Attorney General to investigate multiple violent vigilante incidents against homeless individuals in Humboldt County.  We will continue to pursue these legal actions as recourse against injustice in 2018.

WRAP is proud to support the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival with our research, art work and organizing. We think this campaign is important and we hope it will also uplift the Homeless Bill of Rights Campaigns as one of the solutions needed for a just society.

We also lost a very dear friend in 2017, Ruth Pleaner.  We feel the loss every day.  We are also uplifted by her friendship and supported by all the incredible systems and training she gave us with a huge heart full of love and vision.  In this link, Paul Boden shares some memories of his 29 year friendship and the amazing work of Ruth Pleaner. Rest in power and peace, Ruth.