In late 2005, WRAP formed as a regional collaborative of social justice organizations from six West Coast cities. Our housing and civil rights campaigns go hand in hand to fight the federal cutbacks to affordable housing programs that caused mass homelessness and led to the criminalization of poverty.

Our first major undertaking was to publish Without Housing: Decades of Federal Housing Cutbacks, Massive Homelessness and Policy Failure. This powerful document continues to be downloaded by thousands of people from across the country to educate and mobilize their communities.

Building off this, we launched our civil rights organizing campaign – Without Rights. Without federal support to prevent homelessness, local governments have turned to police and private security programs to remove homeless and poor people from public space. The campaign’s sole purpose is to stop the widespread criminalization of unhoused people and force decision makers to reinvest in the only viable solution to homelessness: affordable housing.

WRAP is building a broad social justice movement that holds decision makers accountable to community needs, addresses the systemic causes of poverty, and ensures poor people’s human and civil rights.