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With the goal of building support for the County to site, fund and operationalize a year-round shelter for 60 homeless men and women by 2018, leaders of Marin Organizing Committee (MOC) launched a signature campaign to reach 6,000 voters. Within five months, leaders had collected over 8,000 signature cards, and counting.

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Bachman Lake residents lined up at the podium with photos depicting bedbugs, mold, leaky windows and malfunctioning air conditioning -- all of which came from a neighborhood inspection of apartments involving 60 resident leaders -- organized by Dallas Area Interfaith. On Monday, resident leaders held a press conference urging the city's Housing Committee to adopt their recommendations in a bid to toughen up Dallas' housing code. One leader, Patricia Vega, has two children with asthma living in an apartment with mold in the bedroom and a broken window that leaks when it rains. Said Dr. Barry Lachman, President of the Asthma Coalition of Texas and leader with Temple Shalom, "no family should ever have to live under the conditions we saw in Bachman Lake."

The housing committee agreed, and city council will vote on the proposal next month.

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At the Sound Alliance's Action Assembly on Homelessness, leaders confronted state legislators from District 46, including Senator David Frockt, Representative Gerry Pollett, and Representative Jessyn Farrell about the lack of affordable housing and the regressive tax structure of the Washington state budget. Leaders secured public commitments for statewide budget reform in order to expand the resources available to fund public education and other human services.

Sound Alliance leaders are planning to partner with Spokane Alliance to work with statewide legislative allies to develop a proposal in time for the 2017 legislative session. House meetings are being organized now to determine statewide priorities.

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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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"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 July, leaders of the Metropolitan Alliance for Common Good approached the Portland Housing Advisory Commission (PHAC) to increase the amount of Portland's Tax-Increment Financing (TIF) set-aside money reserved for affordable housing from 30% to 50%. "We are in a crisis and people are being dispossessed from their homes and their neighborhoods….It's bad and it's going to get worse if we don't do something," said MACG leader Bob Brown.

On September 1st 97 MACG leaders packed the scheduled PHAC review hearing. The Director of the Portland Development Commission argued that increasing financing for affordable housing would necessarily involve reducing support for other services. A key MACG ally and former senior housing policy manager for the Portland Development Commission found $55 million in the budget currently not in use, that could be used for affordable housing. According to her, "credit should go to MACG for organizing and understanding that investing in affordable housing supports their goals of creating a healthy economy."

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In the second of three steps to secure funding for workforce development and affordable housing, PCIC leaders testified before Pima County Supervisors, persuading them to support (4-1) an expanded bond package which includes a building for workforce development program JobPath ($1M), affordable housing ($20M), neighborhood reinvestment ($25M) and open space / environment ($80M).

Randy Mayer, the pastor of Good Shepherd UCC, argued that this bond was an opportunity to leave the County in better shape than they found it. He also pledged the support of PCIC and Southern Arizona Interfaith to help pass the propositions this November -- the final step towards victory.

Mississippi was one of only three states in the country without a housing trust fund. 'Working Together Jackson' changed that.

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For over 30 years, Sr. Christine Stephens and co-director Ernie Cortes have trained lead organizers for organizations like Austin Interfaith, "an eclectic mix of 40 dues-paying partner organizations that include labor unions, churches, mosques, synagogues and non-profits.... The mission of her organization...is to identify and train people like Malone to solve problems for themselves.

'You find people who . . . if put into relationship with one another and taught how to organize, can do just incredible things,' she explains."

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