WHEEL

Mission:

The Women’s Housing, Equality and Enhancement League (WHEEL) is a non-profit and non-hierarchical group of homeless and formerly homeless women working on ending homelessness for women. WHEEL is all about empowerment and action.

WHEEL is the women-only, women-concerned sister organization to SHARE (Seattle Housing and Resource Effort). Both WHEEL and SHARE provide self-managed shelters—including Tent Cities.

WHEEL works to get women out of the places where they have been hiding, recognize each woman as an individual and involve women in the process of improving programs and creating new programs for their own needs.

WHEEL’s goals are to give voice and leadership to homeless women, to organize campaigns around increased services and safety for women, and to develop and support self-managed shelters.

Current Projects:

Women in Black silent witnessing vigils are held whenever a homeless person dies outside in King County. After notification of a death, we stand the following Wednesday, from noon to 1 PM outside the Seattle Justice Center (at 5th and Cherry Streets). In 2018, at least 114 people died outside or by violence--a heartbreaking all-time record! We've stood for more than 950 people since we started these vigils in the year 2000. To get on our email notification list for vigils, please write wheelorg@yahoo.com

Homeless Remembrance Project, public places to honor and remember homeless people who have died. We've worked with church and community leaders since 2003, and established a "Tree of Life" sculpture and celebratory gathering place at Victor Steinbrueck Park near Pike Place Market in 2012. Our Committee has also placed hundreds of "Leaves of Remembrance," with names, in sidewalks all over Seattle. For more information about this project, please visit FallenLeaves.org or on Facebook at facebook.com/pages/Homeless-Remembrance-Project/184372257014

Tent City3is a self-managed camp of up to 100 homeless women, men, and couples, which rotates among churches/spaces mainly in Seattle which we co-sponsor with SHARE.

Tent City4 is a 100-person self-managed camp in suburban Seattle, mainly the Eastside which we co-sponsor with SHARE.

Shelter for Women: For the past several years there has been a severe lack of shelter for homeless women. Our current projects and campaigns include: facilitation and staffing of our own large, low-barrier WHEEL Shelter for Women, which is open year-round, 8 PM to 6:30 or 7:30 AM at Trinity Episcopal Parish (609 8th Ave.). This shelter started in the year 2000 as a Severe Weather Shelter; our advocacy made it year-round and permanent! We also often are Organizing for Provision of More Shelter for Women.