WRAP Executive Director Paul Boden gave a talk last night at the Ballard library, sponsored by Real Change and our friends at Trinity United Methodist Church and Sustainable Ballard.I think I've found the one other person on earth who hates Philip Mangano as much as I do. Boden doesn't like Mayor Newsom much either, and privately describes him as a kind of smiley Kennedy-wanna-be who fucks over homeless people.
The Western Regional Advocacy Project this year released Without Home, a critique of federal housing policy that documents how more than 25 years of federal funding trends for affordable housing have created the contemporary crisis of homelessness and near-homelessness.
WRAP is a west coast homeless empowerment organizer's coalition (see blog) that is working to build a bottom up alternative to business-as-usual. Boden started the organization last year after eighteen years as ED of the San Fransisco Coalition on Homelessness.
Boden will discuss Federal homeless and housing policy today with members of the Seattle King County Coalition for the Homeless immediately following the group's monthly meeting.
Paul said stuff that needs to be said and a bunch of people pretty much seemed to agree. We gave away about 30 pounds of WRAP reports before we ran out. I videotaped things, but the download cord got left at the office. So you have to wait, like I do. I'll get something up soon.
WRAP Member organizations:
- Building Opportunities for Self Sufficiency (B.O.S.S.), Berkeley, CA
- Coalition on Homelessness, San Francisco (COHSF)
- Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA CAN)
- Real Change, Seattle, WA
- Sisters Of The Road, Portland, OR
- Street Spirit, Oakland, CA
Posts
1 comment:
Tim -
See, we need to be talking more trash - at the CEH meetings, at our board meetings, everywhere we go. Because until there's more of us uniting together to end homelessness - and that's a collective US which includes people who are currently and have been previously homeless. Because we can't meet the needs if we don't know them. I went to the IAC meeting last week - or whenever ago it was - and left because it was so STUPID that all these people were sitting around a table in suits discussing what was needed. To give some credit, there were two CAC people there trying to get the voice of the people heard. How do I as the E.D. of a very small organization without much clout talk enough trash to be heard? How do THE ONLY 9 beds for women south of Seattle in King County get used to make a difference? These are the trashy subjects that make me restless on days like today. As I sit in my office, alone, away from the people I love (that would be my family and street people) I wonder if I'm doing the rights things to make a difference. Or should I be outside tipping a bottle in the park?
Post a Comment