WRAP formed in late 2005 as a regional collaborative of seven social justice organizations from six West Coast cities. We are dedicated to building a national grassroots advocacy agenda rooted in the experiences of local communities. Our two major campaigns – Without Housing and Without Rights – focus on the federal cutbacks to affordable housing programs that cause mass homelessness and the subsequent criminalization of poverty.

WRAP’s first major undertaking was to publish Without Housing: Decades of Federal Housing Cutbacks, Massive Homelessness and Policy Failure, a fully researched report and our call to action. It 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 working to build 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.