Housekeys Action Network Denver (HAND)

Founding and History

Housekeys Action Network Denver was founded in 2022 as a project of the Western Regional Advocacy Project, a California-based left-of-center nonprofit that works on homelessness issues. The group characterizes homelessness as deriving from a decrease in federal spending on affordable housing and hosts two monthly meetings to plan activism and share information. ^{2  3}

Parent Organization

Housekeys Action Network Denver is a project of the Western Regional Advocacy Project. This left-of-center group is based in California and is focused primarily on housing and homelessness issues. It characterizes American society as being rife with police brutality, racism, transphobia, and xenophobia, and describes U.S. government policy as being in the grip of “neoliberalism.” It has characterized the actions of the second Trump administration’s U.S. Housing and Urban Development and the Centers for Disease Control as homicidal. ^{4  3}

Finances

Housekeys Action Network Denver is a project of the Western Regional Advocacy Project, and therefore it does not file independent tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service. WRAP does not disaggregate the amount of funding spent on the Denver project. For 2023, WRAP reported total revenues of $779,805, over 99 percent of which came from contributions and grants, while expenses amounted to $715,727, of which salaries and compensation consisted of $186,633. The organization ended the year with a net income of $64,078 and net assets of $233,488. ^{3 5}

Organization Philosophy

Housekeys Action Network Denver holds left-of-center views on housing and homelessness, promoting increased government spending on housing subsidies, with the end goal of turning housing into a “public resource” due to its belief that housing is a human right. It frequently contrasts the amount of money forgone by the government due to homeowner-related tax deductions with the amount of money allocated for housing subsidies, viewing this as an unjust disparity and subsidy for wealthy people. ^{6  2}

Projects and Initiatives

Housekeys Action Network Denver is involved in a variety of activities related to housing issues in the Denver area. HAND conducts two monthly activism, planning, and education meetings. This planning includes street activism, such as a protest in October 2025 opposing the government investing money in beautifying and cleaning up the 16th Street area as well as increased enforcement of ordinances that prevent homeless people from camping or sleeping in public places. ^{1  7}

HAND also publishes research and advocacy reports on homelessness in the area, calling for more investment from the government. In particular, the group alleges that the rise in homelessness since the 1980s is due to decreased government funding for housing. ²

In February 2025, the group sued the city alleging that Denver has been discriminating against homeless people with disabilities by denying them access to services or not providing them with accommodations. As of October 2025, the lawsuit is ongoing. ^{8  1}

Leadership

Terese Howard is the president of the Western Regional Advocacy Project and the founder of Housekeys Action Network Denver. Howard entered housing and homelessness activism in 2011 and founded Denver Homeless Out Loud in response to the Denver government banning camping on public property in 2012. In 2022, she launched HAND to continue homelessness activism in the Denver area. ⁹

Paul Boden is the executive director of WRAP, the parent organization of HAND. He has a long issue of involvement with homeless issues, having worked for 16 years as the executive director of the San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness and as president of the board of Community Housing Partnership for 10 years. He was also on the board and was the co-chair of organizing for the National Coalition for the Homeless. ⁹