“We Will Not Disappear”: Simultaneous Protests in 14 Cities Respond to SCOTUS Anti-Homeless Case
PRESS ADVISORY – for Immediate Release
April 18, 2024 by Jonathan
Homeless-led groups organized through the Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP) are staging rallies, marches, protests, art demos, performances, and teach-ins on April 22, in fourteen cities and counting. The groups are challenging the appeal of SCOTUS case Johnson v. Grants Pass.
Actions are taking place in the following cities: San Francisco (Bay Area), CA; Los Angeles, CA; Sacramento, CA; Portland, OR; Medford, OR; Missoula, MT; Seattle, WA; Denver, CO (https://wraphome.org/targeted-banished-displace-swept/).
“Criminalizing poverty and homelessness not only fails to address systemic causes of mass homelessness, it also exacerbates the underlying structures of oppression that continue to plague our society.” –Paul Boden, Western Regional Advocacy Project
“Anti-camping ordinances result in citations, arrests, and forced displacement for the inescapably human act of taking up space. These ordinances cause essential belongings, including items necessary to basic human survival, to be confiscated and destroyed. And they severely curtail people’s ability to pursue economic and housing security.” –Terese Howard of House Keys Action Network, Denver
“On the day when the Supreme Court will consider further eroding the rights of unhoused people across the United States the City of Oakland, California will be carrying out another inhumane, costly, and ineffective encampment sweep. No matter what the Supreme Court decides, unhoused people and allies will continue to organize to protect the most vulnerable members of our communities and to uplift housing as a human right.” –Talya Husbands-Hankin, Love and Justice in the Streets, Oakland
“Criminalization does nothing more than make access to housing and services harder.” –Adam Smith, Los Angeles Community Action Network
A broad coalition of anti-poverty, anti-imperialist, and racial justice organizations will speak to the importance of protecting the human rights of unhoused people across the country.
