WRAP’s Guiding Principles

“From Reagan to Bush for 25 years A Spirit of Abandon” -
click here to view a poster detailing the abandonment

1. To create a national advocacy agenda rooted in the experiences of homeless people and front line staff in our communities.

2. To collect input regarding our communities’ most pressing issues and priorities through a consistent, coherent outreach effort.

3. That each member organization is part of the staffing of WRAP; therefore WRAP is responsible for providing funding, tools and training to its staff, and staff is responsible for providing follow-up and accountability to WRAP.

4. To minimize additional work for our member organizations by providing the resources, training and direction/follow-up for WRAP outreach staff.

5. To be held accountable to our member organizations and, most importantly, the homeless people and front line staff the represent.

6. To require a 75% membership agreement regarding any decision creating conflict within the organization.

Civil Rights as a Priority

No issue has polarized our communities more that that of homeless people’s civil rights. Municipalities across the county have revived archaic vagrancy laws and added new sleeping, panhandling and loitering offenses to their codes. Recently, we have witnessed a dramatic upsurge in the use of invasive computerized tracking and intake’s systems.

WRAP’s civil rights work will provide organized research and communication channels that leverage the cumulative civil rights work of all the WRAP groups. We will develop an information clearinghouse that will service as both a shield – assisting local criminal defense attorneys with quality of life defense strategies – and a sword – fighting to overturn laws and public policies that violate families, immigrants, and all poor and homeless people’s human rights. We will create an attorney referral network, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) assistance center, and a comprehensive database of the legal and civil strategies that have been employed both successfully and not throughout the Western United States.

back top