On January 20th, Causa Justa :: Just Cause (CJJC) braved the wind and rain to rally at the San Francisco Federal Building along with organizations and activists from across the West Coast. The rally, organized by the Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP), marked Obama’s first year in office. We gathered to demand more funding for construction of new affordable housing units and policies that protect existing units. We marched and chanted to demand Housing Not Handcuffs! It was our first action as a merged organization.

Over the past two decades, homeless advocacy has happened either through DC-based policy advocates disconnected from grassroots organizing or through locally oriented grassroots organizing disconnected from national policy. In order to build a powerful movement, the national policy agenda must be connected to and driven by grassroots organizing of poor and homeless people. We will not sit idly by as our communities are torn apart by lack of true affordable housing, policing, neglect, greed and gentrification.

For more information about WRAP, visit: //www.wraphome.org/