After collective bargaining with the city manager stalled, the police officers union asked The Border Organization (TBO) for help. Politicizing the issue of police pensions and wages, police union firefighters and TBO leaders targeted the City Council, meeting with individual members to line up the four votes they needed. On the day of the vote, police, firefighter, cafeteria worker and TBO congregational leaders piled into the chambers. After a two hour debate, the council unanimously voted to increase city retirement matches on police and firefighter pensions, maintain previously promised step increases, AND increase all city worker wages by 2%!

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Speaking on behalf of COPS / Metro Alliance, Fr. Walter D'Heedene of Sacred Heart Catholic Church reported to the San Antonio Express News that the organization plans to build on their living wage wins of 2015 by raising all public sector jobs in the city to a living wage of $15 /hour. He also mentioned that the organization plans to address predatory lending and criminal justice reforms, including those related to employment in 2016.

Agenda 2016: Community Leaders' Top Priorities for 2016, San Antonio Express News

Last July, Hidden Valley / High Meadows (mobile home) residents became distressed when lot rents for people on month-to-month leases were raised for the second time within a 12-month period. New rules mandated improvements and standardizations — adding new costs to residents — including deck and railing upgrades, paint jobs, skirting repair, shed standardization, and control over inside window coverings. Families were asked to demonstrate possession of a drivers' license to drive on the property, impacting hundreds of residents. Many families scrambled to comply; some left.

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"As far as Michael Brown is concerned, he wasn't supposed to be here.

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"It all started with a group of women," said Dallas Area Interfaith (DAI) organizer Walker Moore, that "wanted to know what their rights were." With the guidance of DAI, the ladies went on to organize several meetings -- at local churches and in apartments -- to formulate a strategy to address mold, dilapidation and crime.

In November, extra chairs had to be hauled out to accommodate 160 people who gathered at San Juan Diego Catholic Church at a meeting in which they brought specific issues with apartment conditions straight to the police chief and City of Dallas elected officials. They and the audience listened with approval as Mayor Pro Tem Monica Alonzo and Roberto Garcia, a Dallas police senior corporal, vowed to help the residents.

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In reaction to a proposal from the Omaha Public Power District to more than triple fixed fees from $10.25 to $35 per month, Fr. Mike Eckley and other OTOC leaders publicly challenged the wisdom of punishing low-income families for conserving energy. OTOC not only succeeded in compelling the Board to reduce the proposed increase by 80%, the Board was forced to create a $1.5 Million customer assistance program for low-income low-use families. Leaders plan to intervene in the November 2016 Board election to prevent future fixed fee hikes from being phased in.

On the dignified housing front, Omaha Together One Community (OTOC) not only succeeded in tripling the budget for demolition of blighted properties between 2012 and 2015, it persuaded the City Council to increase housing re-inspection fees levied on neglectful property owners, sufficient to increase the number of trained rental housing inspectors in the field to nine. In a move against slumlords who abandon their properties, OTOC compelled the Council to pass a vacant property registration ordinance requiring owners to pay $500 for every quarter a house lies vacant (up to $2,000 / year). OTOC succeeded over the opposition of the Landlord's and Nebraska Bankers associations.

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When Maria Bernal's baby stopped breathing after midnight, she called 911. The child turned blue as she waited 90 minutes for ambulances to arrive; the ambulances were stuck in the sand.

Over 250 families live in Highland Oaks, an unincorporated corner of Bexar County, cut off from essential services because they have no streets -- only sand. Schools stopped sending buses to Highland Oaks because they, too, would get stuck.

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Over 150 leaders gathered in Denver for the launch of a new Industrial Areas Foundation - Colorado Sponsoring Committee. Leaders came from a wide cross-section of institutions including the Professional Black Firefighters' Association, Colorado Education Association, Iliff School of Theology, and congregations from Jewish, Christian Methodist Episcopal, United Church of Christ and American Baptist denominations. Leaders celebrated the completion of 1,000 face-to-face relational meetings and pledged to work together to found a Colorado IAF organization.

After undergoing a congregational development process in partnership with the North Texas IAF that involved 3,000 parishioners – 600 of which participated in small group encounters led by 80 ministry leaders -- leaders of St. Joseph's Catholic Parish in Arlington, Texas were astounded by the number of stories about payday lending.

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In an effort to increase the number of home-grown techies to staff the information technology industry in San Antonio, Rackspace created the Open Cloud Academy -- a short training boot camp for programmers and network administrators -- which has graduated 335 people since 2013.

Of these graduates, 221 were supported by Project Quest through City funds secured by COPS / Metro leaders. COPS / Metro's intervention to secure local funding put Project Quest on the cutting edge of bootcamp training for IT workers in San Antonio.

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