[Excerpts]

COPS/Metro representatives will be making the rounds with City Council staffers this week, pushing for a rent-control measure to reduce the stress weighing down working families during the COVID-19 outbreak.

With stay-at-home policies shutting down much of our business activity, the biggest victims have been hourly workers, many of whom have been employed in sectors (namely the service industry) where working from home is not an option, and where the money to meet payroll has dried up.

The problem is most acute for undocumented immigrants, whose jobs have been among the first to go, and who don’t have access to the kind of safety-net programs that are temporarily keeping others afloat.

....

[Specifically,] COPS/Metro is proposing an ordinance that would prohibit residential property owners from charging late fees for nonpayment of rent for the duration of the emergency disaster period declared by Gov. Greg Abbott. (The alliance’s draft ordinance would make this policy retroactive to March 13, the date that Abbott issued his initial disaster declaration.) 

[Photo by Bob Owen, San Antonio Express-News]

Garcia: COPS/Metro Proposes Sweeping Late-Fees Protection for Renters, San Antonio Express-News [pdf]

As part of an ongoing campaign to increase funding for owner-occupied housing rehab and affordable housing, COPS/Metro has gotten involved in the City of San Antonio's Affordable Housing Taskforce.

[Excerpt below]

Andy Sarabia, a founding member of COPS/Metro Alliance, encouraged attendees Saturday to rally support for recommendations by sharing their sentiments with their local elected leaders and City Manager Sheryl Sculley.

“I urge you to contact your Council person to get behind this,” he said. “We’ve got the mayor, who seems to be behind this, but do not forget the city manager. The city manager has a big say in all this. Together, we can put this over the top.”

[In photo, Sr. Gabriela Lohan speaks with Mayor.  Photo Credit: Edmond Ortiz, Rivard Report]

Mayor’s Housing Policy Task Force Reveals Recommendations, Rivard Report

Less than one year after more than 750 COPS / Metro leaders secured candidate pledges for increased municipal investments in home rehabilitation, leaders are now training hundreds of residents about the new program and how to apply.  $9 Million has been set aside for qualifying residents — $6.5 Million from federal funds and the rest through the City of San Antonio.

This effort is a key part of the “Decade of Neighborhoods” campaign launched by COPS/Metro last year.

512 people were trained in just one week.

[Photo screenshot from FOX News coverage.]

Application for San Antonio Home Rehab, FOX News [pdf]