Rights! Action! Power! (RAP)

Making progressive change to ensure everyone has a safe, healthy and affordable home requires an army of advocates working throughout Washington. 

We have a new name: Rights! Action! Power! (RAP) and a new purpose: the RIGHT! to use our voices, by taking ACTION! around tenant protections, equitable housing, and unhoused issues, and the POWER! of the people to make changes when we all come together. 

Rights! Action! Power! (RAP) is a program of Washington Housing Alliance Education Network, and supported by Bridge to Power (B2P). 

RAP Leadership Cohort

We are excited to announce that we are hosting our 1st Rights! Action! Power! (RAP) Leadership Cohort, and we want you to apply (or share with people in your community who might be interested)! 


The RAP Leadership Cohort is a six-month (January-June 2027) leadership development program designed to build a strong, growing base for RAP leaders across Washington. The cohort will include up to 15 participants, with up to five spaces available for direct-service staff. 

Participants will build advocacy and organizing skills, take meaningful action on legislative priorities, develop relationships with one another, and learn how to bring more people into the housing justice movement.  

Washington lacks statewide regulations for fees added on top of rent, like pet rent, valet garbage, or common area access. We call those “junk fees.” They’re unfair and make housing even more unaffordable. During the legislative session, the cohort will follow and engage with a bill to ban these fees, practicing what they’re learning in real time.  

Program Highlights:  

  • Up to $1,500 stipend for fellowship participants  

  • Six sessions running 
    -January-March 2027: Learn, Advocate, Take Action 
    -April-June 2027: Organize, Lead, Build RAP 

  • Mileage reimbursement for in person sessions 

  • Lodging available for those traveling more than 60 miles  

  • Advocacy Day in Olympia Monday, March 8, 2027 

 The program will prioritize people directly impacted by housing injustice and will develop participants' skills as advocates, organizers, and leaders.  

If you have been waiting to use your voice and build real skills, this program might be for you! 

Want to learn more or have questions? Join us on Zoom for an information session on Tuesday October 27, 5-6:30pm. Sign up here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/5rjfAOBpQTC-R7u7IOOaNw

 Applications will close on Saturday, November 13 at midnight. Selected participants will be notified by December 9, 2026.  

Apply now!

About RAP

RAP started in 2015, about a year after the Emerging Advocates Program, and was called the Resident Action Project. At that time we partnered with Community Change as part of their Housing Justice Network and worked alongside Residents Organizing for Change (ROC) in Oregon, Residents United Network (RUN) in California, and Resident Organizing Louisiana (ROLA) in Louisiana.

Today we are part of Bridge to Power national coalition with Action NC (North Carolina), CAJM (South Carolina), Detroit People's Platform (Michigan), Freedom ROC (Akron Ohio), New Hampshire Tenants Union (New Hampshire), MORE Justice (South Carolina), Residents Organizing for Change (Oregon), Residents Organizing for Housing LOUISIANA, (Louisiana), Residents United Network/Housing California (California). 

We are a statewide organizing network and are led by people who live in low-income/affordable housing, and those with lived experience of housing injustice, housing instability, and/or homelessness. We also have allies that support our work.

We are building a cross-race and cross-class movement statewide to work on housing justice. We do this through storytelling, organizing, and civic engagement. We also do this by building power to help change local, state and federal laws and policies.

We know that too many of the people with lived experience are Black, Indigenous, and people of color, those who identify as LGBTQIA2S+, those with disabilities, immigrants & refugee, formerly incarcerated, older adults, those aging out of foster care, veterans, and single parent families just to name a few. We also know that housing is also part of a larger system of oppression that we are addressing in our organizing work and which we are trying to dismantle.  

We believe that "Those closest to the problem are closest to the solutions, but furthest away from the resources and decision making tables." by Glenn E Martin. RAP says no more. We believe that solutions are best when we are centering the voices of those with lived expertise. We do this work so that everyone has a safe and equitable place to call home.  

To learn more or join the movement, sign up here!

Stay connected with the new RAP across our social channels:

Thank you to the RAP sponsors!

Vancouver Housing Authority