Hey People,

You did it!

Thank you to WRAP's community of friends and allies for helping us raise $12,049 in May and June - blowing past our goal!!! And ensuring we can continue to fight
criminalization of people who are houseless and poor and work together for a community that stands up for the basic human rights and dignity of all people.

A very special Thank you to Shannon Cogan for her Portland to San Francisco bike hike and fundraiser for WRAP! We truly appreciate it and you, and hope you had a blast!

Thank you to all of you for all the different ways you join with and support WRAP - we can't do what we do without each and every one of you.

LA CAN Demands an Immediate Audit of HHH Spending."Where the Money At?"

Los Angeles Community Action Network

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Last November, LA CAN released All Show and No Substance, a one-year report card highly critical of Proposition HHH implementation, which concluded that City Hall was not delivering on the measure’s promise to provide safe, clean, affordable housing for houseless people and those in danger of becoming homeless — specifically citing the dysfunction of the homeless policy establishment and the LAPD’s continuous criminalization of houseless people.

Shortly thereafter two U.N. Special Rapporteurs held town halls at LA CAN and Skid Row walkabouts, witnessing first-hand the conditions described in the study. In a report on his U.S. tour, Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, Phillip Alston, criticized Los Angeles for trying to arrest its way out of homelessness, calling the practice “particularly callous.”

Now, more than 18 months after passage of Proposition HHH, the estimated number of permanent supportive housing units it will finance has dropped from 10,000 to 6,000. With one third of the $1.2 bond issue already committed, and the estimated number of units having dropped by 4,000, the public deserves to know how their tax dollars are being spent to address the city’s homeless crisis. Under these circumstances we call on Mayor Eric Garcetti, City Controller Ronald Galperin, and Housing and Community Investment Department General Manager Rushmore D. Cervantes to immediately conduct a financial audit of Proposition HHH spending, including funds for permanent supportive housing and related services as well as any other expenditures of bond issue funds.

LA CAN created the community-based study All Show and No Substance in the interest of getting homes and services for houseless people built at a much faster pace, and we strongly encourage you to give serious consideration to its seven recommendations for accomplishing this goal. You can find a copy of the report at: http://cangress.org/publications/comm...

Join us in the fight to guarantee justice, equity, dignity and respect for all Angelenos. #LetsGetFree

Denver city officials destroyed homeless people's property.

Denver Homeless Out Loud

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In spite of claiming that they do not throw away homeless people's property in sweeps but rather take it to storage, and in spite of being currently in federal court under a class action lawsuit for the violation of 4th amendment property rights, the city threw a homeless person's cart with all their worldly belongs - such as back pack, tarp, tent - straight in the trash. This has happened many times before... But this time it was caught on camera.

Along with this destruction of someone's cart of belongings, they also destroyed at least three bikes. They were about to take a fourth but a women ran over and forced them to give her friends bike to her before they threw it in the trash. They also threw someone's sleeping pad, which may be their only protection from the hard sidewalk - straight in the trash.
THESE SWEEPS MUST END.

Call Mayor Hancock (who is directing these sweeps) and tell him this inhumanity must end now!!
720-865-9000

Get involved...stand up for our rights...

Contact
info@denverhomelessoutloud.org
720-940-5291

OUR CITY, OUR HOME” GOES TO SF BALLOT -
San Francisco

By TJ Johnston - Street Sheet - A Publication of the Coalition on Homelessness

The measure that would house 4,000 people living on San Francisco’s streets is going up for a vote this November.

After an afternoon rally outside City Hall on July 9, a group including homeless advocates and small business owners walked to the City’s Department of Elections and submitted over 28,000 petition signatures to put an initiative called “Our City, Our Home” on the ballot.

To qualify for the November 6 election, the initiative needed 9,485 valid signatures to make the ballot. Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness, said that a legion of some 500 volunteers were able to collect about 8,000 signatures in the last week before the deadline.

If passed, the measure would increase the gross receipt tax by 0.5 percent for local businesses making over $50 million per year. It could raise $300 million for homeless services, effectively doubling the city’s current funding. Friedenbach said that funding would also take up slack from a shortfall of federal monies due to corporate tax breaks from Donald Trump’s administration.

“We’re capturing the hearts of San Franciscans and also a fraction of the Trump tax cuts,” she announced to ralliers.

Jacquelynn Evans, one of the measure’s proponents and a formerly homeless mother, said homelessness has become intergenerational, citing that 1 in 5 children in the City does not have stable housing. She just signed up for a Section 8 voucher for her family. Evans also said that because the City’s response to the homelessness crisis has been inadequate, the people have taken it upon themselves to craft a solution.

“It saddens me how corrupt these City officials are that they allow this crisis to continue without proper planning for housing the needy among us,” she said. “Today we no longer need to wait on the sidelines, to ask for permission from anyone to fix the homeless issue.”[a]
Brian Basinger, director of the Q Foundation, noted that the measure includes a mechanism for eviction prevention for housed people.

“When a senior loses their spouse, or someone loses a job, rental assistance ensures that they do not also lose their long-term rent-controlled housing,” he said. “San Francisco is facing a major housing crisis, with thousands losing their homes each year. San Francisco is better than that. This measure will not only transform the streets of San Francisco but the lives of those who are forced to live on them.”

Funding from the measure would be divided this way: 50 percent would be used to house homeless families, youth and adults; 25 percent for housing and serving people with addiction and mental health and needs; 15 percent to eviction defense, rental assistance and other preventive methods; and 10 percent for shelters and Navigation Centers, as well as hygiene centers, including bathrooms and showers.

Supporters of the measure also include Glide, Community Housing Partnership, Larkin Street Youth Services, Dolores Street Community Services, Hospitality House, SF AIDS Foundation and Homeless Prenatal Program, among others

Opposition is coming from the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.

Judge England has determined that the City of Sacramento cannot enforce its anti-panhandling ordinance.

Sacramento Homeless Organizing Committee

In Sacramento federal court, Judge England has determined that the City of Sacramento cannot enforce its anti-panhandling ordinance. The ordinance has been in effect for some time with restrictions on aggressive panhandling but the city recently added a Section B, making it against the law to panhandle within 30 feet of an ATM or bank door, 30 feet of a transit center or bus stop, or 30 feet from a parking lot driveway. It also restricted panhandlers from approaching someone that is within an outdoor restaurant seating area.

The federal district court determined that the whole ordinance is unconstitutional at this stage and granted the motion for preliminary injunction. This will be in effect unless the city meets a very high burden that proves the ordinance meets the legal requirements for these expansive restrictions.

The lawsuit was brought forward by the ACLU Foundation of Northern California and Legal Services of Northern California with Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness and James “Faygo” Clark, who joined the lawsuit as a plaintiff whose sole income comes from panhandling.

Sacramento Homeless Organizing Committee, an organizational member of WRAP, also joined the lawsuit as a plaintiff. SHOC produces Homeward Street Journal, a street newspaper sold on the streets by homeless and low-income distributors. SHOC not only joined the lawsuit to help protect Homeward distributors, but also to help protect free speech and poverty survival strategies.