WHO WE ARE
The Eastside Leadership for Equitable and Accountable Development Strategies (LEADS) coalition was established in 2017 comprising community members and eight community-based partner organizations working together to ensure urban development and investment is guided by the needs and priorities of the community first, without displacement.
As a coalition, Eastside LEADS organizes and advocates for policies that advance the values of social housing, including the preservation and expansion of affordable housing, the promotion of social equity, and the right to give community members control over the decision-making and governance process impacting their housing and local matters.
Our five campaigns work to bring us closer to our vision of a housing environment where community members are informed of their rights, the decommodification of housing and permanent affordability of housing is uplifted, and the promotion of equal status among community members regardless of their immigration or economic status is supported along with cooperative structures and norms.
Our vision for the Eastside includes:
1. Current residents must guide and benefit from new development, instead of being excluded from the planning process and displaced.
2. Institutions, public officials, and developers must be accountable and responsive to low-income community needs and priorities.
3. Public land must be used for public benefit and utilized for much-needed services for low-income residents, such as affordable housing, health clinics, art centers, green space, youth resource space, and access to healthy food.
4. All new development must create opportunities for local residents and residents with barriers to employment to access job training and high-quality permanent jobs.
5. Eastside residents must have access to jobs that pay a living wage.
6. Rent controlled housing must be preserved, and rent control policies must be expanded to cover all of the Eastside.
7. Eastside residents must have ample opportunities for economic self-sufficiency, stable housing, entrepreneurship, and ownership through the creation and expansion of community land trusts and worker-owned cooperatives.
8. New development, investment, and public policy must support and expand community-serving small businesses and community-based organizations.
9. Services and programs must not exclude people based on immigration status.
10. Eastside residents must be free from the devastating consequences of unjust and unlawful criminalization of youth, communities of color, and low-income communities.
11. Professional language services must be provided for community meetings, and informational materials about meetings or proposed development must always be translated.
12. Eastside residents must have access to quality public education programs in their schools. These programs include restorative justice programs to address long term trauma and dismantle the school to prison pipeline; Access to healthy and fresh food; student health interventions; and culturally relevant arts programs interconnected with core curriculum.
13. Eastside high schools and middle schools must receive equitable funding for cradle to career pathways in the arts and STEM fields and receive supplemental support services for English as a second language learners, foster youth, and LGBTQ youth.
14. Create partnerships between local high schools, community colleges, universities, community organizations and industries seeking to establish in the Eastside. These partnerships ensure that long time Eastside residents remain and thrive in their communities through priority admissions to area universities, career pathways, paid internships, and post-high school career opportunities and trainings for youth and adults.
