Dear Friends,

Have you heard? WRAP is raising $10,000 in May and June to support our work of fighting criminalization in 2018 - can you help? We can't do all the powerful and important work we do without you - our community. Please donate today and help WRAP raise our goal! If you already donated toward this campaign - thank you!

You often hear homeless and poor peoples' organizations speak of victories when they are asking you for money, whether it be a foundation or an individual. I don't know if you are like me, but I read these pronouncements and wonder "what victories are they talking about?"

When organizing on issue of homelessness, what exactly constitutes a victory?

Nobody knows better than WRAP and our members that the situation in America for poor people, and those poor people with no housing, is worse than it has been at any time in our country. Income inequality is at an all-time high, as is the cost of everything we need to survive, most especially housing! Racism in our policing and private sector has come back out of the closet and welfare is a four-letter word. Where the hell is the victory in all this?

With the brutal gentrification that is driving so much of our homelessness, displacement, incarceration and abuse - the fact that we are all still here supporting each other, fighting, educating and strengthening our battles for true justice and dignity is more than just a victory - it is a friggin' miracle.

Business Improvement Districts (BID's) are privatizing our downtown neighborhoods "Block By Block" with the full support of local governments and special "agreements" with police department. And yet, rather than shrink from the money and clout these diabolical monsters are given, this summer we are releasing a UC Berkeley Law School policy advocacy clinic report - 2 years in the making - to educate ourselves and our communities about this privatization and subsequent criminalization.

You can't fight back against something you don't understand. WRAP facilitates the research needed to understand it. The fact we are able to do this on multiple issues and in multiple states is a testament to the strength of WRAP's collective membership and our allies - you! As they did with our Vagrancy Report, Seattle University has already signed on to do a BID report for Washington State.

Our Right To Rest Act, and associated artwork and organizing for the Homeless Bill of Rights Campaign, is universally recognized as the most direct and articulate response to the criminalization of the presence of people local governments (and their BID allies) have decided that want to remove from our communities. As with the racist and class war laws such as Jim Crow, Wet Back and Ugly Laws, that preceded todays anti-homeless laws, this is an "issue" that has been a long time in the making and is not going to be easy to overcome. Our collective victory is in being strong enough, educated enough and committed enough to stay with it for the long haul, secure in the knowledge that nothing worthwhile is easy and that as long as we stay accountable and focused - the support to sustain ourselves will always be there.

We are certain, our 2018 WRAP work plan will bring us many such victories this this year. These won't be victories of achieving the ultimate goal, but victories of survival. Without these, the ultimate victory will never happen.

Thank you for supporting WRAP and for donating whatever you can to support our work in 2018. We can't do all we do without you! Stay in touch - thank you.

Sincerely,
Western Regional Advocacy Project

Check out WRAP 2018 Plan of Work click here >>>>>