The Kensington Welfare Rights Union (KRWU) is a progressive social justice, political action, and advocacy group of, by, and for the poor and homeless operating out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
[1] The group was founded by six women, Alexis Baptist, Sandy Brennan, Diane Coyett, Cheri Honkala, Louis Mayberry, and Debra Witzman, and formed in Philadelphia's Kensington neighborhood in April 1991.
[2] KWRU is a part of the national organization the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, a coalition of grassroots organizations, community groups, and non-profit organizations committed to uniting the poor across color lines as the leadership base for a broad movement to abolish poverty.
[3] KWRU was written about in the 1997 book Myth of the Welfare Queen by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Zucchino.
[5] In 1994 KWRU organized the takeover of 12 vacant HUD owned homes in Philadelphia to try to call attention to HUD's failed housing policies.