Operation Welcome Home

PRESS ADVISORY
For Immediate Release: May 10, 2010
Contact: Z! Haukeness, 608-358-9993, ljhaukeness@uwalumni.com
Rachel Krueger, 920-410-6022, rachelakrueger@gmail.com

Operation Welcome Home Celebrates Moving Family into Vacant Foreclosed Home
Madison action is part of national Take Back the Land effort to elevate housing to the level of a human right

WHAT: Operation Welcome Home (OWH) will hold a press conference on Madison’s westside to celebrate
having moved a family into a vacant foreclosed home. OWH is collaborating with the national Take Back
the Land Movement and a coalition of local groups working in low-income communities to begin addressing
the housing crisis by moving families into homes. At the press conference, OWH and partner groups will ask
the Madison Police Department and the Dane County Sheriff’s Office to not take action on Desiree and her
children and will provide solutions that the government and banks have been unable to offer.

WHEN: Monday, May 10 at 10:00 a.m.

WHERE: 7201 Tempe Dr., Madison

WHO: Desiree Wilson, an after-school program assistant supervisor, and her two young children, moved
into their new home two weeks ago after spending a day cleaning the house which sat languishing for many
months after foreclosure. Desiree will be speaking, as well as the following people: Z! Haukeness: Operation
Welcome Home and Take Back the Land Madison, Nate Abrams: Operation Welcome Home and Take
Back the Land Madison, Cynthia Lin: Freedom Inc., Mario Garcia Sierra: Voces de la Frontera and Dignidad
Sin Fronteras, John Peck: Family Farm Defenders, and other community leaders.

Endorsed by: Operation Welcome Home, Take Back the Land, Groundwork, Freedom Inc., Madison
Affordable Housing Action Alliance, and Madison Infoshop

BACKGROUND:
Operation Welcome Home is a community of homeless people and their allies organizing around the root
causes of homelessness. They are fighting for affordable housing, jobs, and an end to criminalization of
poverty. For more information, see http://operationwelcomehome.wordpress.com/

This effort is part of the national Take Back the Land Movement. Community groups across the U.S. are
participating in a May 2010 Month of Action commemorating the 50th anniversary of the first civil rights era
sit-ins in Greensboro, NC. For more information, see http://takebacktheland.org/

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