In response to widespread power loss during extreme weather events like Hurricane Beryl, The Metropolitan Organization (TMO) secured a $250,000 grant to construct Houston’s first Community Lighthouse at New Pleasant Grove Baptist Church.

The project comes after repeated outages left millions without reliable access to electricity, exposing gaps in disaster preparedness—particularly in neighborhoods already facing longstanding infrastructure challenges.

This week, Harris Health approved a proposal to name the chapel at the new LBJ Hospital The Metropolitan Organization (TMO) Chapel—recognizing the role TMO leaders played in advancing the $2.5 billion bond that made the new facility possible.

TMO receiving the Garnett F. Coleman Health Equity Award from Harris Health

Weeks after securing a path forward for the expansion of Ben Taub Hospital, The Metropolitan Organization (TMO) was recognized by Harris Health with the Garnett F. Coleman Health Equity Award.
The award acknowledges the role TMO leaders played in addressing long-standing overcrowding at Ben Taub—work that spanned multiple years and required public education, accountability, and negotiation.

The award acknowledges the role TMO leaders played in addressing long-standing overcrowding at Ben Taub—work that spanned multiple years and required public education, accountability, and negotiation.

After nearly three years of organizing, The Metopolitan Organization (TMO) leaders are celebrating a major victory for access to life-saving healthcare. The Harris County Commissioners Court voted unanimously to acquire 8.9 acres in Hermann Park to expand Ben Taub Hospital and address dangerous overcrowding at one of Houston’s most critical trauma centers.

TMO recognizes the County Commissioners for their vote to help meet the increasing demand for inpatient care in Harris County.

This win follows sustained organizing by TMO leaders, including securing nearly 2,200 petition signatures in support of the expansion online and in person at congregations throughout Harris County. Leaders educated their communities, held a press conference, delivered public testimony, and conducted behind-the-scenes negotiations and meetings with county commissioners to move the project forward.

The Metropolitan Organization of Houston (TMO) is mobilizing communities across Harris County to win what voters already approved: a critical expansion of Ben Taub Hospital that would add 100 new patient rooms and relieve dangerous overcrowding at one of Houston’s most essential emergency care facilities.

TMO leaders and others in their communities have been detained and deported while at work, after dropping their children off at school, and upon calling the police for help after experiencing domestic violence. In response, TMO organized 27 Know Your Rights and Family Safety Workshops and Immigration Civic Academies with over 2,000 community members from 21 congregations in Brazoria, Fort Bend, and Harris Counties. 

Responding to pressure from The Metropolitan Organization (TMO), the City of Houston has issued demolition orders for two long-vacant buildings, one of which is a strip mall that has been abandoned for over 30 years.

Over a year after Hurricane Beryl and a derecho windstorm made thousands of homes uninhabitable, TMO (The Metropolitan Organization) leaders and allies persuaded the City of Houston to boost funding for home repair from zero to $100 Million, using federal disaster recovery dollars. 

In the closing weeks of the 2025 legislative session, over 100 Texas IAF leaders mobilized once again to stop a corporate tax giveaway that would have slashed wages and cost Texas schools hundreds of millions in lost revenue.

House Bill 105, filed quietly in the final days for bill filing, would have gutted key wage and job creation standards in the JETI (Jobs, Energy, Technology and Innovation) program. JETI replaced the failed Chapter 313 program in 2023, effectively cutting it in half.

If passed, HB 105 would have created a new class of “Priority Projects” for companies investing $750 million or more, allowing them to:

• Avoid proving their tax breaks were a “compelling factor” in choosing Texas,
• Sidestep any requirement to create new jobs,
• Lower wage standards from 110% of the average industry wage for that type of manufacturing facility to 110% of the average county manufacturing wage, which includes many low wage manufacturing jobs, often tens of thousands of dollars less.

On May 31st, nearly 90 leaders from Northeast Houston gathered for Homestead Reimagined—a community meeting at New Hope Baptist Church, organized by TMO leaders. The event focused on redeveloping a former Kmart shopping center off Homestead Road, which has remained abandoned for the past 30 years.